Taiwan and the US are discussing the potential of spaceport cooperation, which could shorten travel time between Taipei and Houston to two-and-a-half hours, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said yesterday.
The potential port is the latest in space cooperation between Taiwan and the US, the AIT said on Facebook, adding that the matter is “awaiting further evaluation.”
Ellington Airport in Houston already has a spaceport license, it said.
Photo courtesy of Houston Airport System
If suborbital flights are used, it would only take two-and-a-half hours to travel between Taipei and Houston, the AIT said.
The cooperation could initially focus on uncrewed cargo missions before maturing technology enables crewed flights, it added.
“This concept highlights Taiwan's potential for space innovation and also marks the deep scientific and technological partnership between the United States and Taiwan,” the AIT said.
The National Science and Technology Council, which oversees the Taiwan Space Agency, said today that Taiwan welcomed the expansion of bilateral space cooperation, but that specific plans for space transportation still required further evaluation and discussion.
Taiwan earlier this year announced Jiupeng Village (九棚) in Pingtung County's Manjhou Township (滿州) as the nation’s space launchsite.
An anonymous source last week said the site has the potential to be expanded into a spaceport.
Suborbital flight from a spaceport involves an aircraft taking off from a runway carrying a spacecraft, which would detach to fly to an altitude that is considered space, a Houston City Government official said.
The spacecraft would then adjust toward its destination before re-entering the atmosphere in freefall and flying to land at the destination airport, they said.
Additional reporting by Tsai Yun-jung and CNA
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