Preparations are underway to transport Taiwan's second satellite, ROCSAT-2, from Hsinchu to California, from where it will be launched in January, according to the National Space Program Office (NSPO).
A huge crane began lifting the 750kg satellite from its home at the office's integration and test lab and into a 2,100kg container owned by NSPO's contractor Astrium Company of France.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
According to Chern Jeng-shing (
The container will be transferred next Tuesday by plane to Los Angeles, where it will then be moved by truck to Vandenberg Air Force Base on California's central coast. A 20-member team led by Chern will arrive in Los Angeles on Dec. 2 to begin preparations for the launch on Jan. 17.
The ROCSAT-2 project has a budget of NT$4.7 billion,.
Five years after the launching of Taiwan's first satellite, ROCSAT-1, the ROCSAT-2 will lead Taiwan into a new era of space research, Chern said
"[The new satellite] is different from its predecessor, as the ROCSAT-2 will have practical applications involving remote-sensing technologies, which will further enhance Taiwan's abilities to prevent disasters or map state-owned land," Chern said.
The ROCSAT-2 will be able to take pictures of objects on the ground as small as 2m across. The satellite is designed to orbit the earth 14 times a day, including two passes over Taiwan, 891km above the earth.
Chern said that the first two weeks after the launch would be the most critical.
The NSPO team will first spend three days examining the satellite in its temporary orbit 723km above the Earth, and another 11 days gradually boosting it into its mission orbit.
"This is the first time Taiwan has carried out an orbit-transfer task," Chern said. "We've practiced it many times to ensure it will succeed."
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