Taiwan could launch a domestically built rocket into space as soon as 2026, if the Legislative Yuan approves funding for the Siraya Rocket Plan project, National Space Organization (NSPO) Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) said.
Researchers would next year start work on the project, which was named after the indigenous Siraya people, Wu said on Friday.
If successful, it would be the first rocket to be designed, built and launched entirely in Taiwan — a milestone for the nation’s emerging space industry, he said.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
The NSPO is next year to be reorganized into a legal entity, and renamed the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), he said, adding that Siraya would be the agency’s first project.
“The project will allow us to test domestically designed and built components for the space industry,” he said.
Under the Space Development Act (太空發展法), the NSPO — and later, TASA — is responsible for construction of a national rocket launch site, he said.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Innovative Space Inc
The launch site in Syuhai Village (旭海) in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹), which the NSPO has used in the past, is suitable for smaller launches, but not for large projects such as Siraya, he said.
A bigger site would be built in either Pingtung County or Taitung County, he said, adding that a selection committee would choose the site based on criteria drafted by the NSPO.
Some of the criteria include transportation options to the site, and whether there are people living within a 2km radius, he said.
“The Siraya rocket project will involve roughly three to four years of planning, which is significantly less time than South Korea’s Nuri rocket took,” he said. “Work started on Nuri in 2010, and it did not launch until October last year.”
Wu said he also expects Siraya to be cheaper than the Nuri project, which cost US$1.7 billion, including the spaceport.
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
RSS