Global players to gather in Singapore for space summit in February
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(From left) Mr Sia Kheng Yok, chief executive of the Association of Aerospace Industries (Singapore), Mr Leck Chet Lam, managing director of organiser Experia Events, and Mr Jonathan Hung, executive director of OSTIn. The summit will be held from Feb 2 to 3.
PHOTO: EXPERIA EVENTS
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SINGAPORE – National space agencies, policymakers, investors and industry players from around the world will convene in Singapore for an inaugural space summit in 2026.
The summit will be held from Feb 2 to 3 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, in conjunction with the Singapore Airshow, its organiser Experia Events announced on Aug 28.
It will address the capability, regulatory and investment gaps in the growing industry. It will also look to create an inclusive, commercially viable and sustainable future for space and space-adjacent businesses.
The space industry is much larger than rockets and exploration missions, which is what most people envision when discussing what lies beyond the Earth, said Mr Jonathan Hung, executive director of the Office for Space Technology and Industry (OSTIn).
OSTIn, which has officially endorsed the summit, is Singapore’s national space office under the Economic Development Board.
“We use space applications a lot in our daily lives, whether it’s global communications, television, broadcast, internet connectivity or GPS. All these rely heavily on satellite technologies,” Mr Hung told The Straits Times.
“You also can leverage satellites for imaging to gather data and get insights to support climate change, sustainability, disaster response, food resiliency, just to name a few. A lot of data and insights that come from satellites are leveraged to support the wider global economy,” he added.
In this landscape, Singapore can look to use satellite technologies to improve its operations as an aviation hub, and to future-proof its ports, Mr Hung said.
Companies can also tap the technology to derive carbon credit solutions, by analysing the make-up of forests around the world, he added.
The summit comes as the global space economy is expected to grow at record rates, from US$630 billion (S$810 billion) in 2023 to US$1.8 trillion by 2035, according to World Economic Forum projections.
Singapore has also been advancing its own space ambitions. Earlier in 2025, the Government announced that it will invest an extra $60 million
The top-up will be invested over the next two years in the Space Technology Development Programme, launched in 2022 by OSTIn and the National Research Foundation.
This increases the total amount of government funding in the programme to over $200 million.
The Republic’s space industry comprises around 70 companies across the value chain with some 2,000 professionals, according to an official directory.
Attendees and the line-up of events at the summit are still being put together. It will be themed “New frontiers: Shaping a responsible and inclusive space future”.
Holding the summit in conjunction with the biennial Singapore Airshow, which will be held from Feb 3 to Feb 6 in 2026, was a deliberate decision, said Mr Leck Chet Lam, managing director of Experia Events.
“The Singapore Airshow has a very strong established base, as far as attendees and exhibitors are concerned. Putting them together helps to promote cross-sector discussions. Space and aviation are very natural offshoots,” he added.
