The “clock is ticking” for the nation to launch its own satellites to secure Internet and phone services during a potential conflict with China, Taiwan Space Agency Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) said in a recent interview.
Taiwan needs 150 of its own low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for “basic communication resilience” in case the subsea telecoms cables connecting the nation with the rest of the world are damaged or cut, Wu said.
It currently has none.
Photo: Cheng, I-hwa, AFP
“We need to build up our own technology, but as you know... The clock is ticking,” Wu said. “We need to speed up.”
Taiwan has already seen what happens when subsea cables are disconnected.
In February 2023, two telecoms lines serving outlying Lienchiang County were severed, disrupting communications for weeks.
Taiwan plans to launch the first of six LEO satellites 600km above the planet in 2027 as part of its Beyond 5G LEO Satellite program.
US officials have previously cited 2027 as a possible timeline for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
In the meantime, Chunghwa Telecom is striking deals with satellite companies around the world to provide back-up telecommunications in case of a war or natural disaster.
Starlink dominates the satellite communications sector, with 8,000 satellites lofted into orbit by Elon Musk’s comparatively cheap, reusable SpaceX rockets.
However, Musk’s business ties with China and his previous comments that Taiwan should become part of China have angered Taiwan, which has instead signed a multimillion-dollar deal with European company Eutelsat, the world’s second-largest operator of LEO satellites.
Eutelsat has more than 600 satellites, following its 2023 merger with British firm OneWeb.
“We’re developing our own technology, but it takes a while; but we can leverage the commercial resources to get us to have this communication resilience,” Wu said.
However, Wu said Eutelsat’s satellites were not enough, and other providers were needed.
Taiwan has also partnered with US company Astranis and SES of Luxembourg, and is in talks with Amazon’s Kuiper and Canada’s Telesat.
Eutelsat’s satellite system was reportedly used in Taiwan for the first time during a disaster last year, when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on the moment magnitude scale struck the east coast and knocked out communications.
Taiwan is lightyears behind the US and Chinese space programs.
The rival superpowers have plowed billions of US dollars into sending people into orbit and launching thousands of satellites.
Taiwan currently has seven meteorological satellites and one optical remote sensing satellite in orbit, and hopes to have “more than 20” by about 2031, Wu said.
It plans to launch a second optical remote sensing satellite in November from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on a SpaceX rocket.
Wu said Taiwan would have its own rockets and launch site in the next decade.
However, when it comes to communication satellites, some question the economic sense of countries developing their own networks when commercial options are available.
“If you want this to work, you need a large number of them in low Earth orbit for that continuous coverage,” said Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist and cosmologist at the Australian National University. “You have to be committed to this long-term operation, but also, then you need to maintain it. Starlink works because they are deorbiting their satellites every three years, putting up a new one.”
However, Taiwanese expert Cathy Fang (方怡然) said it would be “dangerous” for Taiwan to rely only on foreign satellite operators for phone and Internet signal during a war.
Taiwan has learned lessons from Ukraine, where Starlink has been a vital communications tool for Ukrainian forces fighting Moscow’s troops.
Musk has admitted blocking a Ukrainian attack on Russian warships by turning off Internet access to the system.
“We can’t just rely on one side,” said Fang, a policy analyst at the government-backed Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology. “We need to cultivate our industry.”
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