KOTA KINABALU, June 14 -- The recent tensions between American billionaire Elon Musk and United States President Donald Trump have posed a setback to Sabah's space ambitions.

"This is relevant because we are targeting investment from Elon Musk's side. Most of the world's major commercial space programmes are based in the United States, followed by Europe. We are also considering China. All this requires firm decisions at the federal level," explained Science, Technology and Innovation Sabah Ministry (KSTI) Permanent Secretary, Datuk Mohd Hanafiah Mohd Kassim.

From a global perspective, he said there is currently congestion in satellite launches due to a shortage of launch platforms.

"There is a bottleneck. Rocket operations are also ve...