Over the past 20 years, new Asian players have emerged in the competition for space. Until the end of the 20th century, Japan – the only Asian country admitted to the International Space Station – played a leading role in the region. However, the beginning of the 21st century has seen the rise of other countries' space capabilities, fuelling a new space race. China has made sizeable progress, outpacing Russia as the main competitor to the United States. Beijing aims to be the world's leading space power by the mid-2040s and has integrated its space activities in the army structure. China is planning to build a permanent research station on the lunar south pole and a solar power station in space. China and Russia are increasingly teaming up in space projects. India has showed the capability to perform low-cost missions, including the successful landing on the Moon in August 2023, making it the fourth country to achieve this. South Korea has a relatively recent space history, but aims to rank among the world's top five space powers by 2045. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have revealed ambitious space policies; the UAE aims to establish the first inhabitable human settlement on Mars by 2117. Meanwhile, despite the narrative of a shared vision for humanity in space, China is accumulating major counter-space capabilities, including that of seizing control of a satellite, rendering it ineffective. The Chinese army has meanwhile designated outer space as a warfighting domain. There is also concern around the claimed pacific purpose of Iran's space programme, potentially supporting its intercontinental ballistic missile capacities. North Korea is also developing a space programme. The European Union (EU) economy, society and security are increasingly reliant on space services. The April 2021 Space Regulation established the EU space programme and the EU Agency for the Space Programme. The EU's space strategy for security and defence was adopted in March 2023.
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Table of Contents
- Summary 1
- The great space age 2
- Figure 1 – Key space-related figures for selected countries 2
- Space programmes of selected countries 3
- China 3
- China's potential military use of space development 5
- Japan 6
- South Korea 7
- North Korea 8
- India 8
- Iran 9
- United Arab Emirates 10
- Oman 10
- Saudi Arabia 11
- Increasing reliance of the EU economy, society and security on space 3
- Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) 9
- Cooperation on space in Asia 11
- Space law treaties and principles 11
- Europe–Asia cooperation on space 12
