President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. confirmed during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27 that the Philippines will conduct its first liquid-fueled sounding rocket launch from Philippine soil in 2027, positioning Cagayan province as the country’s planned first spaceport site.
“Cagayan is both geographically and economically primed to serve as our gateway to space and host the country’s first spaceport. A sounding rocket launch test is slated for next year,” Marcos said in his address, which was met with applause. “Yes, we are going to launch a rocket into space.”
The launch will place the Philippines among a small number of countries in the region pursuing sovereign rocket capability, a step that officials say could eventually support satellite deployment and reduce dependence on foreign launch providers for national space programs. The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) has framed the project as groundwork for a future Philippine spaceport, which would compete for a share of a global launch market that industry group Space Foundation says is on pace to exceed 329 orbital launches this year.
The test flight will fly a liquid-fueled rocket carrying a locally developed payload of up to 2 kilograms to an altitude of at least 5 kilometers, according to PhilSA. The agency is implementing the project together with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA), in partnership with Ascend International Gateway, a Philippine airport operations firm, and Perigee Aerospace, a South Korean launch vehicle developer. The arrangement builds on a memorandum of understanding signed in March 2026 during the Philippines-Korea Business Forum.
PhilSA Director General Gay Jane Perez said the country’s geography gives it an advantage as global launch demand outpaces available spaceport capacity. “With the Pacific Ocean to its east and its proximity to the equator, the Philippines is well positioned for safe and secure rocket launch and recovery operations,” Perez said, adding that PhilSA is pursuing a public-private partnership for the long-term development of a Philippine spaceport.
Under a related training initiative, selected Filipino engineers will receive hands-on instruction on Perigee’s Blue Whale-class sounding rocket platform, continuing a partnership that began under PhilSA’s founding director general in 2022. DICT Secretary Henry Aguda said sovereign launch capability would let the Philippines independently deploy communications and earth observation satellites, reducing reliance on foreign launch services for national ICT infrastructure.
PhilSA has not announced a specific launch date within 2027 or confirmed the final site within Cagayan. The agency said further details on the spaceport partnership and training program will be released as the project progresses.
