Want China Times
Date: 2015-08-17
By: Staff Reporter

Taiwan announced plans to launch its new FORMOSAT-5 satellite on a US-built Falcon 9

A previous launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. (Internet photo)

two-stage rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early next year during the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition held between Aug. 13-16, American military expert Wendell Minnick writes in an article for Defense News.

Minnick said FORMOSAT-5 has a remote sensing imager that can provide two-meter panchromatic and four-meter multispectral spatial resolution. A representative of the state-run National Applied Research Laboratories told Minnick that this is the first space program under which Taiwan’s National Space Organization will take full responsibility for the complete satellite system including payload. The solar-powered sun synchronous FORMOSAT-5 is estimated to have a mission life of five years.

While the source declined to comment as to whether the FORMOSAT-5 will have a military payload, the company is currently working with the country’s National Space Organization in the development of FORMOSAT-7, a joint project between National Space Organization and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to deploy an extended 12-satellite constellation to continue the FORMOSAT-3 program.