The national space agency yesterday officially changed its name to the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), after it was earlier this week upgraded and placed under the purview of the Cabinet-level National Science and Technology Council.
The Hsinchu City-based entity, previously called the National Space Organization, was renamed to include “Taiwan,” as this would improve readability and international recognition, the council said.
“The reorganization is a very important milestone for the country’s space development” as domestic technology would now receive more international recognition, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said at the rebranding ceremony.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
She said after the reorganization, TASA would be tasked with additional assignments, such as working with the Ministry of Economic Affairs to upgrade the nation’s space industry and working with the Ministry of Education to train space industry talent.
To seize international business opportunities, “we have been preparing to install ourselves in space. Taiwan’s 30 years of development of space technology and its accumulated results in the research and development of satellites have given it an excellent track record,” Tsai said.
TASA Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) told reporters that the reorganization would give the agency access to additional resources.
Taiwan’s advantage in space development is that it has the necessary fundamentals and has reached the stage at which is develops its own components, Wu said.
TASA, which currently employs about 200 people, is planning to recruit about 300 new staff over the next three years, Wu added.
“The restructuring also allows for a raise in salaries, which will be more attractive compared with the past,” he said.
The restructuring was implemented on Jan. 1 in accordance with the Act for the Establishment of the Taiwan Space Agency (國家太空中心設置條例), which was promulgated on May 4 last year.
The upgraded status aims to enhance national space technology research and development capabilities, implement national space strategies and plans, and promote the development of space activities and the space industry, the act says.
Originally established in 1991 as the National Space Program Office of the National Space Technology Long-Term Development Program, the entity became part of the National Applied Research Laboratories in 2003 and renamed the National Space Organization in 2005.
Since 1999, the agency has seen the launch of the Formosat-1, Formosat-2, Formosat-3, Formosat-5 and Formosat-7 satellites.
The Formosat-5 and Formosat-7 constellations are still in service, while Formosat-8, a constellation of six high-resolution optical remote sensing satellites, is to be launched next year and in 2025.
The TRITON (Wind-Hunter Satellite) is to be launched this year as part of an effort to research air-sea interaction and predict the intensity of typhoons, Wu said.
“Through a GPS receiver we can measure the height of the waves in the sea and calculate the speed of the wind, which is very important for our daily weather predictions,” Wu said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS