Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, through its international commercial arm Glavkosmos, is partnering with Thai company C&C Advanced Technology (C&C) to promote Russian space-related technology in Thailand, according to a report in SpaceTech Asia.
Glavkosmos and C&C shared a booth at the recent Royal Thai Air Force exhibition held in Bangkok on 22 August 2018.
C&C is a commercial partner of Roscosmos and has exclusive rights to promote Russian advanced technologies – both military and non-military – in Thailand. SpaceTech Asia reports that among the products and services it offers are the construction and launch of nanosatellites and CubeSats, research and development (R&D) and technology transfer services, and the sale of Russian arms such as the AK-100 assault rifle.
As part of Roscosmos’ effort to promote Russian technologies in Thailand, Glavkosmos also held talks with a Thai delegation in Moscow in August 2018 to discuss the possibility of creating commercially-viable small satellite technologies.
According to Glavkosmos executives, Russia has also been working with Thailand on a number of space-related fields, such as Earth observation, CubeSat development, and launch services. This includes PIXEL, an initiative of the Thai Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) that is a competition for young professionals in remote sensing data applications held earlier this year.
Under the scheme, Glavkosmos, together with the Roscosmos-owned company Russian Space Systems, provided GISTDA with the high resolution images taken by the Resurs-P satellite to implement the ideas of the programme participants.
Earlier in 2018 Thailand and Russia agreed to cooperate under the auspices of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), an economic, trade, and infrastructure bloc that includes most countries that were once Soviet republics. Among the numerous initiatives of the EAEU are satellite technology development and space cooperation.
Thailand is also cooperating on space issues with China under the umbrella of the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and using the Thai economic initiatives of the Thailand 4.0 economic modernisation programme and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) infrastructure and economic development project. This cooperation was cemented last week by an agreement signed by GISTDA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
