A scientific space exploration rocket was to be launched from a base in southern Taiwan yesterday evening, one day later than its original schedule, officials from the National Science Council (NSC) said yesterday.
The launch was postponed when an unidentified vessel intruded into the launch's restricted sea area, coupled with bad weather, NSC officials said.
The space exploration rocket, the third of its kind to be built by the military's Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CIST), will be launched from a CIST base located in Chiupeng, Pingtung County, the officials said.
The rocket, which has an altitude limit of 300km, is primarily aimed at providing a bet-ter understanding of the Earth's ionosphere, NSC Vice Chairman Hsieh Ching-chih (謝清志) said on Tuesday.
Noting that objects placed into orbit less than 300 km from the Earth's surface are prone to falling back to Earth, Hsieh said that no satellites orbited in the layer from 60km to 400km above the Earth's surface. This part of the ionosphere has long been referred to in jest as an "uncharted zone," he said.
The rocket will carry scientific instruments to explore and measure the ionosphere. According to Hsieh, the first such rocket was successfully launched about three years ago, but did not carry any research equipment. The second rocket did carry scientific equipment, but its launch two years ago failed, he said.
Taiwan's space program, under the direction of the NSC Space Program Development Preparatory Office, is aimed at carrying out research and development for and launches of basic space exploration rockets by 2009 and multi-functional space exploration rockets by 2018, he said.
Chinese maritime research vessels have been discovered operating in areas very close to Taiwan's economic waters on more than 12 occasions over the past year.
An official Chinese Web site has been found to closely monitor Taiwan's space development program and reports Taiwan's activities in detail on the Web site, including rocket launches.
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