ROCSAT-2, the second satellite that Taiwan has put into space, was launched yesterday in California at 1:47am Taiwan time, making the nation not only a satellite-image exporter but also a leader in the hot field of upper-atmospheric lightning research, the National Science Council said yesterday.
Celebrating the event at the headquarters of the council's National Space Program Office (NSPO) in Hsinchu -- and viewing real-time images from the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base -- were Wei Che-ho (
PHOTO: CNA
An improved Taurus launch vehicle operated by US Orbital Sciences Corp (OSC) -- bearing Taiwan's national flag and the imprint of the ROCSAT-2 mission -- lifted the 750kg satellite into space. Eighty-four seconds after liftoff, the launch vehicle's Stage Zero rocket had finished burning, creating a white air-current tail.
According to data sent back from the launch vehicle, ROCSAT-2 and the rocket separated 15 minutes after liftoff, at which point the satellite went into its temporary orbit 737km above the Earth -- 14km higher than expected.
Seventy-four minutes after the launch, ROCSAT-2 completed its first telemetry feedback to a ground-support station in Kiruna, Sweden.
"The successful liftoff demonstrates Taiwan's potential to upgrade its space industry," Wei said.
In the future, we are confident that domestic firms will be able to replace foreign companies and become major contractors for satellite projects," Wei said.
The satellite project, which cost NT$4.7 billion (US$142 million), was designed and built by the NSPO in collaboration with Astrium Co of France.
The project got under way in 2000.
At 8:25am yesterday, after the satellite's fourth orbit around the globe, it made contact with Taiwan for the first time, sending information to a receiving station in Chungli.
All information was transferred to NSPO headquarters in Hsinchu, allowing scientists at the NSPO's Mission Operation Center to perform a series of checks on the satellite's operations.
NSPO officials said that the satellite would be transferred to a higher orbit at 891km.
All tests on the satellite's functions will be completed within about a month. After that, the craft will begin a 5-year remote-sensing observation project and an investigation of upper-atmospheric lightning.
"Now, Taiwan will be an exporter of satellite images and a key player in investigating the mysterious phenomenon of upper-atmospheric lightning," Lee said.
President Chen Shui-bian (
"The successful liftoff is a great gift that the team has presented to Taiwan's people," Chen said.
Happiness about the launch was shared by those who had traveled to the US to observe it.
Shieh Ching-jyh (
Shieh told the Taipei Times yesterday from California that the ROCSAT-2 team had been criticized too much for a series of delays that had delayed previous launch attempts.
"Responsible engineers have to discover potential problems and fix them to ensure a successful mission," Shieh said.
"We've been doing this for a long time," Shieh said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS