A planned launch site for sounding rockets in Pingtung County might become available at the end of this month, if local Aborigines agree with its establishment, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Thursday.
The ministry and the National Space Organization (NSPO) for more than a year have been negotiating an agreement to use the site in Mudan Township’s (牡丹) Syuhai Village (旭海).
Although the National Property Administration owns the site, meaning the ministry has rights to use it, Article 21 of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法) says that the consent of local Aborigines is required.
Negotiations to allow a mobile launch pad at the site are still ongoing to ensure that safe and legal operations would not infringe on Aboriginal rights, Minister of Science and Technology Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) told the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee in Taipei.
Separately, NSPO Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) said that the site was expected to become available in May, but factors including a surge of local COVID-19 infections have delayed the process.
Aborigines in Syuhai are to hold a communal conference this month, he said.
To facilitate the negotiations, an NSPO member visits the village every week, Wu Jong-shinn said, adding that he would visit it next week.
Talks are expected to be finalized this month, he said.
The process to secure a national launch site for long-term use can be started only after the NSPO’s status is upgraded to an administrative entity directly under the ministry, Wu Jong-shinn said.
The NSPO is one of eight units of the ministry’s National Applied Research Laboratories, but a bill is expected to pass this legislative session to make it an administrative entity next year, he said.
After that, the establishment of a national launch site would take one or two years, as environmental impact assessments and more negotiations would be needed, he said.
In related news, Taiwan Innovative Space (TiSPACE), which aims to be Taiwan’s first commercial rocket developer, said it plans to launch a reserve rocket before the end of the year after its Sept. 17 attempt to launch its Hapith I rocket in Australia failed when an internal fault caused the craft to catch fire.
The Spacenews Web site on Thursday quoted TiSPACE chairman Chen Yen-sen (陳彥升) as saying that “Hapith I launch campaigns will resume [at the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex] by the end of the year after making a ‘minor material change’ to two remaining rockets.”
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-nan
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