The nation’s second domestically developed satellite, Triton (獵風者), is slated to be launched in the second half of 2021 by French firm Arianespace at a base in French Guiana, the National Space Organization (NSPO) said on Friday.
Dubbed the “Wind Hunter,” the satellite will be tasked with gathering data about sea wind and working with the Formosat-7 constellation to advance the nation’s weather forecasting capacity, NSPO Deputy Director-General Yu Shiann-jen (余憲政) said.
The six-satellite Formosat-7 constellation — a Taiwan-US collaborative program — was launched by the US company SpaceX with other foreign satellites from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25.
Photo provided by the National Space Organization
The nation’s first domestically developed satellite Formosat-5, a remote-sensing satellite, was also launched by SpaceX on Aug. 25, 2017 from the Vandenberg Air Space in California.
For the Triton launch, two companies — Arianespace and another foreign firm — competed for the bid, Yu said.
Most of Triton’s critical components and payload instruments were developed by Taiwanese personnel, with its ratio of indigenous development reaching 87 percent, 9 points higher than for Formosat-5, he said.
Its payload instrument — the Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) — as well as other critical components, such as the onboard computer, the power control unit, the GPS receiver and a fiber-optic gyro, were developed by NSPO personnel, Yu said.
The cubic satellite, measuring about 280kg, is equipped with a deployable solar panel on one side, according to Triton’s project description on the NSPO’s Web site.
It will be launched with other satellites from an orbit of 500km to 600km from the ground, with an inclination angle of no smaller than 24°, while the actual parameters should be confirmed along with other satellites, the NSPO said.
Some of the techniques used in developing Triton were an improvement on those used in Formosat-5, and they would be further advanced when developing the nation’s next satellite program, Formosat-8, a remote-sensing satellite, Yu said.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS