Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), formerly the National Space Organization (NSPO), is the national civilian space agency of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

(Taiwan), under the auspices of the

National Science and Technology Council The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is a council in the Executive Branch of the United States. It is designed to coordinate science and technology policy across the branches of federal government. History The National Science and ...

. TASA is involved in the development of space technologies and related research.

Vision and Mission

TASA was founded in order to develop and conduct researches on aerospace and natural science in Taiwan. Its mission is to be a center of innovation and excellence for space technology and to develop space programs that applies Taiwan's strength and global competitiveness.

Organization

TASA headquarters and the main ground control station are in Hsinchu. The TASA is organized as follows: In April 2022, the

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

passed a bill that upgraded the NSPO to a directly affiliated agency of the

Ministry of Science and Technology A Science Ministry or Department of Science is a ministry or other government agency charged with science. The ministry is often headed by a Minister for Science. List of Ministries of Science Many countries have a Ministry of Science or Ministry ...

, and renamed Taiwan Space Agency. TASA also has numerous laboratories, such as: * System Simulation Laboratory * Thermal Control Laboratory * Microwave Communication Laboratory * Data Processing Laboratory * Attitude Determination and Control Laboratory * Electro-optics Laboratory * Structure Development Laboratory * Electrical Power Laboratory * Multi-layer Insulation (MLI) Laboratory

History

1991

* 10/03
The Executive Yuan approved the "Space Technology Long Term (15 years) Developmental Program"; established National Space Program Office.

1994

* 09/09
Held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of Satellite Integration & Test Building * 11/01
Signed a frequency coordination contract with an US company Telecom Strategies * 12/12
Signed a ground system contract with the US company Allied Signal Technical Service Corponation (ATSC)

1996

* 06/30
The completion of the five domestic component engineering model development; start the manufacture of flight unit.

1997

* 04/25
Held a FORMOSAT-1 antenna installment ceremony at Tainan National Cheng Kung University. * 05/16
The Spacecraft Bus was delivered to the Satellite Integration & Test Building of National Space Program Office from Los Angelus, USA * 07/11
The Vice President Lien officiated the opening ceremony of the Satellite Integration & Test Building.

1998

* 06/21
National Science Council announced the result for the "Naming and Drawing Competitions", and finalized that the satellite will be named "FORMOSAT-1" * 10/07
The completion of FORMOSAT-1 satellite system integration and tests.

1999

* 01/27
FORMOSAT-1 was being launched into the orbit and started executing its scientific missions. * 02/13
The Ocean Color Imager of FORMOSAT-1 took its first ocean color image. * 03/16
Dr Wong Hung-Chih took on the Director General position of the National Space Program Office. * 06/30
Held a contract signing ceremony for the FORMOSAT-2 X-band antenna system. * 12/15
The commencement of the development of FORMOSAT-2.

2018

* 02/01
Dr. Chun-Liang Lin took on the Director General position of National Space Organization * 02/23
President Tsai Meets with FORMOSAT-5 Satellite Team * 08/03
President of the Executive Yuan Ching-te Lai inspected FORMOSAT-7 preparation * 09/21
FORMOSAT-5 Imagery Service Begins

2019

* 02/21
President Ing-wen Tsai Visited NSPO * 06/25
FORMOSAT-7 satellites launched into space by

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

on Falcon Heavy * 07/17
FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 successfully observed the first Radio Occultation profile

2020

* 03/07
FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 atmospheric data were released * 04/30
FORMOSAT-3 constellation Completes its Mission with Honor

2021

* 01/24
YUSAT and IDEASSAT CubeSats launched * 02/03
Formosat-7 constellation deployment was completed * 05/31
"Space Development Act" Passes Legislature's 3rd Reading * 08/02
professor of NCTU and head of

Advanced Rocket Research Center The Advanced Rocket Research Center (ARRC; ) is a Taiwanese space transport research organization headquartered at National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu City, Taiwan, with a research focus in hybrid rockets. Founded in April 2012, ARRC is supp ...

Jong-Shin Wu established as new manager of NSPO * 09/30
Taiwanese seeds return from space * 10/27
signs contract on collaboration with NanoAvionics

2023

National Science and Technology Council placed under the direct oversight of the

and renamed the Taiwan Space Agency. The Chinese name was not changed.

Taiwanese rocket launch program

TASA developed several suborbital launch vehicles based on the

Sky Bow II The Sky Bow, or Tien Kung (), are a series of surface-to-air anti-ballistic missile and anti-aircraft defense systems developed by Taiwan. The TK-2 and TK-3 are in service with the Military of the Republic of China. Development The development of ...

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

. There have been six to seven launches as of 2010.

Taiwanese satellite launch vehicle program

Little has been publicly revealed about the specification of Taiwan's first launch vehicle for small satellites ( SLV) (小型發射載具). It should be able to place a 100 kg payload to a 500–700 km orbit. This SLV will be a major technological improvement based on existing sounding rockets and will consist of four solid propellant stages with two strap-on solid rocket boosters. Therefore, it will be in the same class of the Indian SLV-3. The inaugural launch was scheduled to take place during the second phase of the 2004–2018 space project (第二期太空計畫), placing a Taiwanese-made satellite into orbit and after the preparatory launches of 10 to 15 sounding rockets (探空火箭).

Taiwanese designed and built satellites

Formosat (formerly ROCSAT)

The FORMOSAT (福爾摩沙衛星) name derived from

Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...

and

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

(formerly ROCSAT (中華衛星) =

(ROC) + satellite (sat)). *

Formosat-1 Formosat-1 (福爾摩沙衛星一號, formerly known as ROCSAT-1) is an Earth observation satellite operated by the National Space Program Office (NSPO, now the National Space Organization) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to conduct observations ...

(formerly ROCSAT-1):

Communications Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

and

ionospheric The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an im ...

research satellite, launched in January 1999. * Formosat-2 (formerly ROCSAT-2): Ionospheric research and surface mapping satellite, launched May 2004. * Formosat-3/COSMIC: Constellation of six

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...

s to perform

GPS occultation Radio occultation (RO) is a remote sensing technique used for measuring the physical properties of a planetary atmosphere or ring system. Atmospheric radio occultation Atmospheric radio occultation relies on the detection of a change in a radio ...

studies of the upper atmosphere. Collaborative project with US agencies including

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, launched in April 2006. *

Formosat-5 Formosat-5 (Formosa Satellite 5; ) is the first Earth observation satellite manufactured and operated solely by the National Space Organization, the national civilian space agency of Taiwan. The satellite was launched from a Falcon 9 rocket on 2 ...

: Optical earth observation and magnetic field research as a successor to the Japanese

Reimei Reimei ('Dawn') is the in-flight name for a small Japanese satellite known during development as INDEX (INnovative-technology Demonstration Experiment), developed in-house at JAXA both to serve as a demonstration of small-satellite technologies ( ...

mission. Cooperation with Japan and Canada. Launch was originally planned for 2011, it was launched in 2017. *Formosat-6 was a micro satellite project, its development was cancelled. *

Formosat-7 COSMIC-2 also known as FORMOSAT-7, is the constellation of satellites for meteorology, ionosphere, climatology, and space weather research. FORMOSAT-7 is a joint US-Taiwanese project including National Space Organization (NSPO) on the Taiwanes ...

is a group of 6 satellites in low inclination orbits to provide meteorology data at low and mid latitudes. Launch took place in June 2019.

Others

* YamSat: Series of picosatellites (volume 1000 cubic cm, weight roughly 850 grams) designed to carry out simple short duration

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wa ...

missions. Originally planned for launch in 2003 by a Russian launch vehicle but cancelled due to political pressure from the Russian government. * Arase:

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...

mission to study the inner magnetosphere, launched 2016. Taiwan provided an instrument. *

RISESAT The Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program is a series of spacecraft missions for testing technology and ideas put forward by universities and private companies. The program demonstrates various experimental devices and technology ...

: microsatellite developed by

Tohoku University , or is a Japanese national university located in Sendai, Miyagi in the Tōhoku Region, Japan. It is informally referred to as . Established in 1907, it was the third Imperial University in Japan and among the first three Designated National ...

, Japan, launched in 2019. Taiwan provided an instrument. *Flying Squirrel, developed by National Central University and launched in 2021. *Yushan, developed by MoGaMe Mobile Entertainment and launched in 2021.

Planned missions

*Triton, The FORMOSAT-7R (TRITON) is a micro-satellite designed and manufactured by NSPO. It is planned along with the FORMOSAT-7 program, thus it continues to use FORMOSAT serial number and subjoins a letter “R” for identification. Known as the “wind hunter” the satellite will measure sea winds and provide a supplement to the FORMOSAT-7 constellation. The name ”Triton” is given due to its mission. Triton is to be launched in 2021 by

Arianespace SA Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy-l ...

from the Kourou launch complex in

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

. The Triton satellite will be 87% Taiwanese made, an improvement from the Formosat-7's 78%. *Formosat-8, remote sensing satellite planned to follow Triton. *Nut, developed by National Formosa University. To be launched in June 2021.

Developments and long term plans

The first phase of Taiwan's space program involves the development of the human and technological resources required to build and maintain three satellite programs, which is expected to be completed with the launch of Formosat-3/COSMIC by the end of 2005. Currently, the spacecraft and instrumentation are designed and assembled in Taiwan by local and foreign corporations and shipped to the U.S. for launch by commercial space launch firms. TASA, the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, and Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology have also been working on the development of a

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are used to ...

for upper atmospheric studies. The second phase is scheduled to take place between 2006 and 2018. It will involve an emphasis on developing technological integration and miniaturization capabilities required for the development of constellations of microsatellites, as well as encouraging growth in the local aerospace industry. Since 2009, TASA has been working with university research teams in developing innovative technology to improve the overall efficiency of hybrid rockets. Nitrous oxide/HTPB propellant systems were employed with efficiency boosting designs, which resulted in great improvements in hybrid rocket performance using two patented designs. So far, several hybrid rockets have been successfully launched to 10~20 km altitudes, including a demonstration of in-flight stops/restarts. By the end of 2014, they will attempt conducting suborbital experiments to 100~200 km altitude. There have been proposals to elevate NSPO's status to that of a national research institute, however such plans were under debate

as of late 2007. In 2019 the Ministry of Science and Technology announced an expected cost of NT$25.1 billion (US$814 million) for the third phase of the National Space Program. The third phase will see at least one satellite launched per year between 2019 and 2028. In August 2019 Thailand's

Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency The Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Public Organization) ( th, สำนักงานพัฒนาเทคโนโลยีอวกาศและภูมิสารสนเทศ (องค์การมหา� ...

announced that they would consult with TASA on developing their own indigenous satellites. In 2021 the Taiwanese legislature passed the Space Development Promotion Act which is meant to incentivize increased private sector participation in space industries.

References

External links

NSPO website
{{Authority control Space agencies Space program of Taiwan Executive Yuan Buildings and structures in Hsinchu 1991 establishments in Taiwan Scientific organizations based in Taiwan