Without being affected by external forces, including recent political controversy surrounding China Airlines' purchase of new aircraft, Taiwan's satellite projects have gone smoothly, according to officials of the National Science Council (NSC) yesterday.
Meanwhile, the NSC's National Space Program Office (NSPO) has extended a 72-month contract costing NT$220 million with four local high-tech firms, which are in charge of operating and maintaining Taiwan's satellites.
In addition, to demonstrate Taiwan's positive application of satellite-related technologies, the NSPO yesterday reported a world-class success in catching images of a "giant blue jet," a phenomenon occurring in thunderstorms that is similar to lightening.
NO THREAT
According to NSC Vice Chairman Hsieh Ching-chih (謝清志) yesterday, the council has received no external pressure threatening to terminate Taiwan's contract with France-based satellite manufacturer Astrium, Europe's No. 1 space company, which is working with the NSPO to build part of Taiwan's second satellite, ROCSAT-2.
The pan-European Astrium, established in 2000, is the result of a merger of Germany-based DASA, France-based Matra-Marconi Space (MMS) and other European companies. Astrium is a joint venture of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), which owns 80 percent of Airbus.
Amid the recent political storm pertaining to the Taiwan government's vacillation in purchasing new aircraft for China Airlines, representatives of Astrium expressed concerns on Tuesday during a visit with Hsieh in Taipei.
"What I can say is that the ROCSAT-2 project is going smoothly," Hsieh told reporters. "No one mentioned a word about repudiating the contract."
According to Hsieh, Astrium said Taiwan should remember the favors done by France, stressing that France lost opportunities to sell Airbus aircraft to Beijing due to the collaborative project with Taiwan on ROCSAT-2.
A petition letter submitted by Astrium, Hsieh said, described reasons that Taiwan should consider purchasing the French-made aircraft.
The petition letter was transferred to the Presidential Office on Wednesday, Hsieh said.
CONTINUING EFFORTS
NSPO director Lee Lou-chuang (
Yesterday, an extension contract was signed by Lee and representatives of four local companies. They were S.M. Tien (田思民), president of Tatung System Technologies Inc; Raff Liu (劉瑞復), chairman of System Computer Engineering Co; George Chou (周鐘麒), CEO of Taiwan Telecommunication Network Services Co Ltd; and John Lin (林俊華), president of CTCI Corporation.
A team composed of the NSPO and the four companies was formed in 1994 to prepare for future maintenance and operation-related affairs of the ROCSAT-1 (
Lee said that the contract needed to be renewed because ROCSAT-1 is able to function between five to 10 years.
WORLD-CLASS
DISCOVERY
Lee said that research involving satellite technologies in Taiwan should be promoted because local scientists have done great jobs, including the recent capture of high-resolution images of a rare "giant blue jet," which feeds energy from thunderstorms up into the Earth's ionosphere.
According to Lee, it was the second time in the world that images of the phenomenon have been captured.
"But the five images captured by Taiwan have a high resolution," Lee said.
The discovery of "giant blue jets" by Victor Pasko of Pennsylvania State University in Puerto Rico last September was developed into a cover story for Nature in April.
On July 22, physicists at National Chen Kung University -- Su Han-tzong (
Five images of a "giant blue jet" from a thunderstorm 500km away from the Philippines were captured.
The blanket of electricity charged the air some 20km to 80km above ground, Lee said.
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