Taiwan is seeking to become 80 percent autonomous in manufacturing key satellite components by 2025 and develop small launch rockets, National Space Organization (NSPO) Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) said yesterday.
Following the six-satellite Formosat-7/COSMIC-2 constellation’s launch in 2019, weather observation satellite Triton is scheduled to be launched next year, Wu told a news conference in Taipei to mark the agency’s 30th anniversary.
Meanwhile, the agency is working on the Formosat-8 project, which would comprise six remote-sensing satellites with a resolution of 0.7m each, Wu said, adding that its first satellite is set to be launched in 2023.
Photo: Lin Chia-nan, Taipei Times
“Hopefully, by 2025, the nation will be 70 to 80 percent autonomous in manufacturing key satellite components,” Wu said, referring to components in satellite buses and payloads.
Wu said that local space industry’s plans should focus on satellite communications equipment, satellite-related applications and space start-ups.
The agency is planning training courses with focus on certain industries on component testing and low-Earth orbit communications satellites, its Web site shows.
Hopefully, the agency would continue to support the development of sounding rockets and small launch rockets, Wu said.
Asked whether the agency has formal plans for developing rockets, Wu said that the promotion of rocket development is his personal vision, despite his role having no final say in space policy decisions.
The Executive Yuan in 2019 approved a third-phase space technology development program with a budget of NT$25.1 billion (US$899.3 million) until 2028.
The program is being revised, with the aim of facilitating more industry participation in space projects, and engaging more government agencies in fostering firms in the industry and local talent, Wu said.
The agency must become more appealing to recruit more talent at a time when some key employees are set to retire within the next five years, he said.
Meanwhile, the agency last month launched a new book reviewing its 30-year history, titled Formosats Launched into Space — A Trajectory for Taiwan Space Development (福爾摩沙飛向太空—台灣太空科技發展的軌跡), written by Wang Chi-lan (王季蘭).
The agency’s history has seen many ups and downs, including financial difficulties in 2007, when it could barely pay salaries, National Applied Research Laboratories president Wu Kuang-chong (吳光鐘) said.
It has overcome many obstacles and is expected to become more active after its reorganization, he said.
Quanta Computer Inc founder Barry Lam (林百里) said that supercomputing and hyper-connectivity communications technologies are key future trends, as well as the development of advanced chips by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
While Taiwan has advanced hardware manufacturing, the nation should also seek to make breakthroughs in software development and become a “solution supplier,” Lam said.
Later yesterday, Wu Jong-shinn, Minister of Science and Technology Wu Tsung-tsong (吳政忠) and Hsinchu Science Park Bureau director-general Wayne Wang (王永壯) joined a delegation to visit Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Lithuania until Saturday next week.
“We hope to develop closer ties with them and create win-win situations,” Wu Tsung-tsong said.
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