Taiwan’s first locally built weather satellite, the Triton, is expected to be launched in August, the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) has said.
The satellite would be launched on an Arianespace rocket from French Guiana, said an agency official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Triton is the latest in a series of locally developed satellites, including Formosat 5 and 7.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The development of the Triton shows that the agency’s capabilities in aerospace development, design and manufacturing have greatly improved, the source said, adding that it proves that Taiwan can produce weather satellites.
Eighty-two percent of the 250kg satellite’s components were made in Taiwan, it said.
It includes the global navigation satellite system reflectometry device developed by TASA. The device can gather reflected signals in low Earth orbit from US-owned GPS satellites and aid in ocean-atmospheric interchange research as well as estimate the strength of typhoons.
Working with French company Arianespace, TASA is expected to complete the satellite’s pre-shipment review by the middle of next month, the source said.
It would then await confirmation of the launch schedule, upon which the satellite would be delivered to the launch site in French Guiana for further testing, fueling and docking with the rocket, the source said.
The launch was initially scheduled for the first quarter of this year, but the failed launch of an Arianespace Vega-C rocket on Dec. 20 last year has led to delays, the source said.
Arianespace has confirmed that the launch would proceed in August and switched the carrying rocket from Vega-C to the original Vega.
According to specifications on the Arianespace Web site, the Vega, introduced in 2012, has a target payload lift capacity of 1,500kg for missions to a 700km circular orbit.
Triton would be launched by Arianespace’s Small Spacecraft Mission Service. The satellite is expected to settle in a circular orbit at about 550km to 650km from the Earth’s surface, with a 98-degree incline, allowing it to fly over any point on the planet.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its