Formosat-5 has been detected and numbered by the US Department of Defense’s warfare command center, the National Space Organization’s (NSPO) project director Chang Ho-pen (張和本) said yesterday.
The orbit and height of the satellite have met expectations, Chang said at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport upon his return from the US along with some members of his team and Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Su Fong-chin (蘇芳慶).
The group had traveled to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for the launch of the satellite, which was delivered by a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket into its 720km orbit several minutes after liftoff at 2:51am on Friday (Taiwan time).
Photo: CNA
Chang said that several members of his team remained at the US space center, where they are monitoring the remote-sensing satellite, conducting tests and verifying data in the hope that it can soon begin normal operations.
The specialists are to also fine-tune its parameters to ensure that the satellite will run at optimum capacity.
Formosat-5, which was developed and built entirely in Taiwan, is expected to begin providing data that can be used for national security, geopolitical, scientific and academic purposes in about two weeks, the NSPO said.
At the airport, Su said that Formosat-5’s launch highlights the importance of advanced scientific research.
“It not only opens up an aspect of space technology research, but also looks after people’s livelihoods by helping prevent flooding and disasters and helping maintain the land,” he said.
The satellite is the start of an era in the nation’s space industry that could create economic benefits, Su said.
The Formosat-5 is like a giant digital camera that can photograph the Earth from space and send back clear images of the planet’s surface, the Central Weather Bureau’s Weather Information Center head Cheng Chia-ping (程家平) said
It can record changes before and after earthquakes or typhoons and relay images of flooding, landslides and mudslides, which would allow for faster and better-informed disaster prevention and response, Cheng said.
However, while the images can be used to help establish a weather database, they cannot be used for forecasting, he said, adding that Formosat-5 is an optical remote-sensing satellite, not a weather satellite.
The 450kg satellite took six years to develop at a cost of NT$5.7 billion (US$188.4 million).
However, National Museum of Natural Science director-general Sun Wei-hsin (孫維新) said there is still a long way to go to develop a vibrant Taiwanese space industry.
Other nations are ahead of Taiwan in the basic foundations for the industry, expertise and development of the marketplace, he said.
Nonetheless, the creation of the satellite is proof of Taiwan’s scientific knowledge, Sun said.
Formosat-5 is an opportunity to deepen the nation’s space education and cultivate more expertise in the field, Sun said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai