The nation’s first locally designed satellite, FORMOSAT-5, should be on its way to the US in preparation for its launch next month, National Space Organization (NSPO) officials said yesterday at a ceremony in Hsinchu.
FORMOSAT-5 is scheduled to be launched at 2:50am on Aug. 25 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by the US company SpaceX, the agency said.
However, the cargo was briefly held up at customs, which said some permits for the transport of strategic and technological products were missing.
Photo: CNA
As of 8:30pm yesterday, the officials had cleared the problem and promised the cargo would leave as scheduled, NSPO Deputy Director-General Yu Shiann-jen(余憲政) said, adding that the agency was not familiar with the new rules.
The NSPO showed images of the satellite being transported from the agency’s headquarters at the Hsinchu Science Park to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to await its flight at 11:50pm.
It is expected to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport at 9:30pm on the same day.
The satellite has to be delivered in a low vibration environment with a temperature range of 18°C to 22°C, said Eddy Liu (劉得湶), vice president of China Airlines’ cargo sales, marketing and services division.
Commissioned to operate for five years, the satellite is tasked with collecting data for disaster evaluation and scientific research, said Chang Ho-pen (張和本), FORMOSAT-5 project director at the National Applied Research Laboratories (NARL).
Asked if the satellite’s images will be exchanged internationally, Chang said other nations would need to pay for them, but the NARL would provide free images in cases like international rescue, as it did with images of the 311 earthquake in Japan in 2011 and the Sichuan earthquake in China in 2008.
The satellite will operate in a trajectory at 720km altitude from the earth, he said.
It can orbit the Earth once every 100 minutes, he said.
The NSPO had planned to launch the satellite in October last year, but it was postponed after SpaceX’s failed rocket test in September.
Reflecting on their efforts over the past six years, NSPO Director-General Chang Guey-shin (張桂祥), holding back tears, said the team had encountered many difficulties since the project started in 2010.
When it was developing an earlier satellite named Argo, it could not find some essential components, NARL Director and former NSPO director-general Wang Yeong-her (王永和) said.
“Since then, we thought we might have to make the components by ourselves, and we could borrow from our domestic IC industry,” Wang said.
Asked about the difference between FORMOSAT-5 and FORMOSAT-2, Wang said their functions are similar, but FORMOSAT-5 was locally developed and manufactured, while FORMOSAT-2 was built by a French company.
“We hope the space technology can be developed into a national industry soon,” he added.
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