ON A ROLL:With  Formosat-5 up and running, the NSPO plans to launch 10 satellites by the end of 2028, and update its integration and testing facilities for satellite instruments

Taipei Times
Date: Dec 18, 2019
By: Lin Chia-nan  /  Staff reporter

The images taken by Taiwan’s first indigenously developed satellite, Formosat-5, has been used to

calculate underwater topography and monitor rice production after it became commercially operational last year, and its performance is comparable to that of a US high-resolution satellite, the National Space Organization (NSPO) said yesterday.

The NSPO, a National Applied Research Laboratories affiliate, yesterday at a news conference in Taipei touted the academic applications of images taken by Formosat-5.

The optical remote sensing satellite was launched on Aug. 25, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a Falcon 9 rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies Corp, commonly known as SpaceX.

It became commercially operational in September last year, and has been transmitting black-and-white images with a resolution of 2m and color images with a resolution of 4m.
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