National Space Organization (Taiwan)

The National Space Organization (NSPO, formerly known as the National Space Program Office) is the civilian space agency of Taiwan under the auspices of the Executive Yuan's National Science Council. NSPO is currently involved in both the development of space and satellite related technologies and infrastructure (including the FORMOSAT series of Earth observation satellites) and related research in aerospace engineering, remote sensing, astrophysics, atmospheric science, and information science.

NSPO headquarters and the main ground control station are located in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

ounding rocket program

Indigenously developed suborbital launch vehicle based upon the Sky Bow II surface-to-air missile. Five launches as of 2006.

Mission	Date	Payload	Result
SR-I	12/15/1998	None	Successful first test flight.
SR-II	10/24/2001	Tri-Methyl Aluminum (TMA)	Second stage ignition failure, mission lost
SR-III	12/24/2003	Tri-Methyl Aluminum (TMA)	Mission successful
SR-IV	12/14/2004	Airglow photometer, GPS receiver	Mission successful
SR-V	1/15/2006	Ion probe	Mission successful

LV program

Little has been publicly revealed about the specification of Taiwan's first Satellite Launch Vehicle (|date=2008-06-23|accessdate=June 25|accessyear=2008] This SLV will be an upgrade based on existing sounding rockets and will consist of 4 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 is scheduled to take place during the second phase of the 2004-2018 space project（第二期太空計畫）, placing an indigenously-made satellite into orbit and after the preparatory launches of 10 to 15 sounding rockets （探空火箭）. [cite web|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/gb/doc/2003-10/21/content_273967.htm|title =台“太空计划”决定发展微卫星火箭发射载具|publisher= 中国日报网站|date=2003-10-21|accessdate=June 26|accessyear=2008]

atellites

FORMOSAT

*FORMOSAT-1: Communications and ionospheric research satellite, launched in January 1999.
*FORMOSAT-2: Ionospheric research and surface mapping satellite, launched May 2004.
*FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC: Constellation of six microsatellites to perform GPS occultation studies of the upper atmosphere. Collaborative project with U.S. agencies including NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, launched in April 2006.

Other

*YamSat: Series of picosatellites (volume 10 cubic cm, weight roughly 850 grams) designed to carry out simple short duration spectroscopy missions. Originally planned for launch in 2003 by a Russian launch vehicle but cancelled due to political pressure from the PRC.

Developments & 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. NSPO and the military Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology have also been working on the development of a sounding rocket for upper atmospheric studies.

The second phase is scheduled to take place between 2006 and 2018, and 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.

There have been proposals to elevate NSPO's status to that of a national research institute, however such plans are still under debate by the Legislative Yuan as of late 2007. [ [http://www.epochtimes.com/b5/6/11/15/n1523041.htm 太空中心升格為太空研究院？立委意見不一 ] ]

External links & references

* [http://www.nspo.org.tw NSPO website]
* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/world/taiwan/agency.htm GlobalSecurity article on Taiwan's space program]
* [http://www.astronautix.com/country/taiwan.htm Encyclopedia Astronautica - Taiwan]

References