Nine months after the successful launch of Taiwan's first satellite, which brought cheer to the island's scientific community, the second satellite, named ROCSAT-2, appears to have been stopped in its tracks.
Officials from a German technology company under contract with the Taiwan government to build parts of the ROCSAT-2 (
Despite rumors of Chinese interference, the German company's officials said they were still confident of getting the permit, though they did not specify a time frame.
In February, Dornier Satelliten Systeme GmbH, a subsidiary of the DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Group, won a US$83 million contract to build parts for the ROCSAT-2 for Taiwan's National Space Program Office under the National Science Council (NSC). According to the government, the ROCSAT-2 is intended to be used for agriculture and forestry evaluation, environmental monitoring, education, and to foster international cooperation in various scientific research fields.
Under the contract, Dornier was to have obtained the export permit for satellite-related technology from the German government by Sept. 30. Its failure to do so has put the project in limbo.
The project remains shrouded in secrecy, and NSC officials have privately asked Taiwan reporters not to push the issue too much Officials have refused to answer any questions about the satellite since Sept. 30.
The contract stipulated that Dornier was to have returned a deposit of US$6 million to the Taiwan government if it failed to receive the export permit on time, but neither the NSC nor Dornier have provided details concerning the deposit.
NSC officials said publicly in July that the collaborative effort with Dornier had been hampered by political meddling from China. The German government had apparently been delaying the issue of the export license because China had expressed concerns over whether the technology could also be used for gathering military intelligence in the Taiwan Strait.
But Dornier officials in Germany rejected this notion yesterday, telling the Taipei Times they still believed they would obtain the export license.
"We have been communicating with the German government and have promised that no surveil-lance-oriented satellite technology would be exported under the Taiwan ROCSAT-2 plan," said Goetz Wange, Dornier's public relations director.
"We have to let our partners in Taiwan understand that we are still fighting for [the permit]. But we need more time because we are in a difficult position," said Wange.
However, Dornier officials acknowledged that all activities regarding ROCSAT-2 had been suspended, including the exchange of personnel and information.
"We don't want to spend more money on it [the contract] if we are not sure that we can go on," said Wange.
"It's hard to say how long it will take to receive the permit. After all, the German government is the decision-maker.
"We've done everything we can do to deal with the situation," said Wange.
Dornier is responsible for building a payload system for the ROCSAT-2. It will have a high resolution and varied-band spectra, giving the satellite the ability to scan and identify objects of two meters in size on the earth's surface. This obviously has China worried.
According to a report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Sept. 19, China's deputy foreign minister, Zhu Qizhen (
Civilian satellites used for advanced communication technology have been a focus of intense debate in recent years.
The New York Times reported recently that for the past three years China's military has relied on American-made satellites, sold to it ostensibly for civilian purposes, to transmit communications to its far-flung army garrisons across the nation.
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