Triton, Taiwan’s first domestically produced weather satellite, was successfully launched into space from French Guiana and entered orbit yesterday morning, the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) said.
The satellite was launched at 9:36am Taiwan time on Vega, an Ariane space commercial launcher designed with a target payload lift capability of 1,500kg and which has had 22 missions.
Triton was ejected from the launcher about 54 minutes after takeoff and communicated with Troll, a Norwegian research station in Antarctica, at 12:19pm, TASA Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) said.
Photo: screen shot from a Taiwan Space Agency livestream
The satellite was scheduled to communicate with a ground station in Taiwan for the first time when it passed by at 8:56pm yesterday, he said.
Triton was scheduled to launch on Saturday, but the mission was postponed after an abnormality was discovered 14 seconds into the countdown. The mission resumed following a 48-hour close inspection of the launch vehicle, Wu said.
The satellite is carrying the Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R), which is tailored to analyze signals reflected by the global navigation satellite system on the surface of the sea to analyze wind speeds, Wu said, adding that data collected by the GNSS-R would be important for climate science research and weather forecasting.
Photo: CNA
Climate researchers and meteorologists can use the satellite to observe extreme weather and typhoons in low-latitude zones of the central Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, Wu said.
About 82 percent of the Triton satellite, including the payload, was developed and manufactured in Taiwan, the TASA said, adding that more than 20 research-and-development units and manufacturers participated in the development of the equipment at the ground station.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) thanked everybody involved in the successful launch of Triton for persevering despite the challenges.
“Not only is this a major step forward for Taiwan’s aerospace industry, but it is also an achievement that should make all Taiwanese proud,” Tsai said.
“The successful launch of Triton has proven that Taiwan has an advantage in manufacturing semiconductors and precision equipment. We absolutely have the capability to advance the global aerospace industry,” she said.
The government is scheduled to launch Phase III of its space program, to which NT$25 billion (US$776 million) would be devoted over 10 years, to build a space industry chain and cultivate next-generation talent in the space industry.
The launch of Formosat-5 in 2017 and Formosat-7 in 2019 showed that Taiwan has the capability to develop its own satellites, Tsai said.
“From the transonic advanced jet trainer AIDC T-5 Brave Eagle, the Hai Kun submarine launch to the launch of Triton into space, we can proudly say to the next generation: Taiwan-made products can be showcased in the international market and can fly in the air, be immersed in the sea and operate in space,” Tsai said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing