On December 25 2020, Thai startup mu Space conducted the soft opening of its spaceship factory – the first in Thailand – a prototype that will form the basis of a larger, fully-fledged spaceship factory to be built this year.
The upcoming spaceship factory will be medium-sized and will be used to produce and assemble Thailand’s first spaceship, a multi-purpose reusable vehicle resembling a space plane. The company also plans to produce satellite parts, locally-made GPS systems, a space data centre and more. To achieve this, mu Space will use funds raised from its Series B round held earlier this year.
Said CEO Varayuth Yenbamroong, ‘The fund recently raised will be used on quickly build a large-scale factory to produce and assemble the first spaceship of Thailand, along with satellite parts and commercial spaceships for domestic affairs, communications, national security such as creating a locally made GPS (Global Positioning System), robotic testing, autonomous system testing for unmanned vehicles to be used on the Moon mission. The factory will be equipped with the 5G communication system. It will also serve as a platform to develop “Space IDC” technologies, with a plan to test the “Space IDC”(Space Internet Data Center) simulation in the first quarter of 2021.’
“Space IDC” or Space Internet Data Center services is a project jointly created by ‘mu Space’ Corp. and TOT Public Company Limited, that aims at providing a data center service with a server being located in outer space.
“mu Space’ is planning to build 11 gateway stations initially in Bangkok to operate its upcoming Low Earth Orbit Satellite (LEO), while preparing to propose up to 8 projects from US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the beginning of 2021.
