Taiwan on Monday launched another 8U cube satellite (CubeSat), Black Kite-2, atop a Space Exploration Technologies Corp Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Rapidtek Technologies Inc said yesterday.
Rapidtek and the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) have collaborated since 2023 to create a constellation of low Earth orbit consisting of four 8U CubeSat platforms dedicated to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, the company said in a statement.
Black Kite-2, the company’s second platform, was launched as part of TASA’S 10-year Start-up CubeSat Program, the statement quoted Rapidtek chairman Arthur Wang (王奕翔) as saying.
Photo courtesy of Rapidtek via CNA
The mission is part of the company’s efforts to build a telecom satellite-based IoT architecture, improving network security and performance, he said.
The TASA-Rapidtek team gained valuable experience in launch and orbital operations, which helped them standardize procedures to create a replicable mission framework, Wang said.
Black Kite-1 and Black Kite-2 are in solar synchronous orbits between 500km and 600km from Earth, the company said, adding that the platforms are focused on improving operational systems stability, geolocation precision and telecommunications link authentication capabilities.
The Rapidtek-designed Ku-band antenna module, which operates on software created by the Industrial Research Technology Institute, supports frequencies up to 40 megahertz to enhance medium and high-speed data transmission, it said.
The platforms are being tested with Ku-compatible ground stations built in collaboration with National Taipei University of Science and Technology, it said.
The missions are to establish protocols and testing for high-frequency applications, it said.
Black Kite-2 would be a test platform for low-rank adaptation technologies and sensors for transmitting environmental monitoring data, Rapidtek said.
A ground station is being established in collaboration with National Tsing Hua University to expand the use of telecom satellites in IoT networks, it said.
The next step would be to push telecom satellite-based IoT technology from experimentation to application, it added.
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