With South Korea preparing for the fifth launch of its Nuri rocket, the country's space ambitions took center stage at AEROTEC 2026, the second International Aerospace Technology Exhibition held recently in Changwon, a major hub for South Korea's aerospace industry.

As South Korea prepares for the fifth launch of its Nuri rocket, small and medium-sized enterprises are taking on increasingly important roles in the country's space supply chain alongside major aerospace companies such as Hanwha Aerospace.

South Korea's Hyundai Rotem is accelerating its expansion into aerospace propulsion systems, showcasing 10-ton- and 35-ton-class methane rocket engines under development at AEROTEC 2026 as it targets growing demand for reusable launch vehicles.

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) showcased its next-generation medium-sized satellites and compact synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites at AEROTEC 2026 in Changwon, highlighting an expanding space strategy that increasingly extends from Earth observation into communications.

Days after reports emerged that TSMC was reassessing plans for a wafer fab in Texas, Tim Culpan, a former Bloomberg columnist and founder of independent media outlet Culpium, disclosed that the chipmaker is in discussions with Elon Musk's Terafab over potential cooperation.

US defense technology unicorn Shield AI is expanding its presence in Taiwan as the Russia-Ukraine war drives growing demand for asymmetric warfare capabilities and defense technologies. At its first press event in Taiwan on October 2, co-founder and CEO Brandon Tseng outlined plans to deepen local partnerships, expand its supply chain, and build its Taiwan workforce.

Aerospace Industrial Development (AIDC) unveiled its first self-developed fixed-wing tactical drone, the Raven X. AIDC president Hsiu-mei Chuang recently stated that the Taiwan-based aerospace company is shifting part of its business focus toward unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) development, following the winding down of its Brave Eagle advanced jet trainer production program.

SpaceX's Starship reached Earth orbit for the first time on its 14th test flight and successfully deployed 26 third-generation Starlink satellites, marking a major milestone for the heavy-lift rocket. Engine anomalies during the flight, however, forced SpaceX to cut short a mission originally planned to last about 10 hours, with Starship deorbiting after roughly three hours.

Google has moved its orbital AI data center ambitions from paper to hardware. A prototype satellite carrying the company's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) reached orbit on October 1, 2026, and the data it returns over the coming weeks will help decide whether Project Suncatcher's vision of solar-powered compute clusters in low Earth orbit can survive contact with reality. The launch also puts the first real test data behind a concept that a Gartner analyst has said does not make economic sense.

Swancor Holding subsidiary Swancor Regener is jointly exhibiting with Aeraxa Aerospace Technology at the Taichung AI and Smart Manufacturing Show in Taichung, Taiwan, showcasing products and technologies including recycled raw materials, drone structural components, and smart flight-control core modules.

Champ-Ray Industrial is stepping up efforts to expand in Japan's drone market, using a recent sponsorship tie-in with the Oita Trinita professional football team in Japan's J2 League to open deeper exchanges with the Oita Prefectural Government and local drone operators. The DC motor and ceiling fan maker said it is mapping local drone industry needs and evaluating whether to submit samples for testing as it moves toward practical cooperation.