Taiwan and the US are discussing the potential for spaceport cooperation, which could shorten travel time between Taipei and Houston, Texas, to two-and-a-half hours, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said on Monday.
The program would expand 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: Screen grab from American Institute in Taiwan’s Facebook page
If suborbital flights are used, it would take only 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 (NSTC), which oversees the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), yesterday welcomed the expansion of bilateral space cooperation, but added that specific plans for space transportation required further evaluation and discussion.
An entirely new form of transportation, the spaceport program could use several different approaches, an unnamed official from Houston First, the tourism bureau of Houston, said late last month.
One would involve a large aircraft carrying a spacecraft into the air and releasing it over open ocean, the official said.
After release, the spacecraft would ignite its engine, ascend vertically through the atmosphere, adjust its orientation, then return to Earth in a free-fall trajectory before making a precision landing at a designated airport, the official added.
The US has 20 spaceports and launch or re-entry sites, including the Houston Spaceport, which is located next to Ellington Airport, US Federal Aviation Administration information says.
That airport focuses on spacecraft development and supports training activities for NASA.
A source familiar with the matter said that relevant US agencies have engaged in informal discussions about the spaceport concept with TASA during international exchange events.
Given the speed of launch and landing, such travel is currently unsuitable for untrained passengers, making cargo transport a more feasible application, the source said.
Taiwan currently does not have a spaceport.
The NSTC announced earlier this year that Jioupeng Village (九棚) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州) was selected as the location for Taiwan’s national launch facility, with current plans focused on launch operations after the site is completed.
However, space has been reserved at the site for potential expansion into a spaceport capable of handling landings, the source said.
Separately, when asked about the potential spaceport cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs North American Affairs Department Director-General Wang Liang-yu (王良玉) yesterday said that the ministry does not have details on the issue, but it would discuss it with relevant government agencies, and that it would be glad to assist where needed.
Additional reporting by Tsai Yun-jung
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS