Taiwan is poised to launch its first locally made observation constellation satellite in the US later this year, signalling a major boost for its lagging space programme.
The move marks a critical step for the island in a global space race increasingly dominated by powers such mainland China, which is making rapid advances.
The launch of the Chi Po-lin Satellite – named after the late Taiwanese documentary filmmaker famed for his aerial imagery – represents Taiwan’s pivot from manufacturing single satellites to building its own satellite constellations, a transition seen as a crucial leap for the island in the high-stakes technological competition.
The satellite is the first of eight spacecraft in the Formosat-8 constellation, a high-resolution optical remote sensing system developed under the third phase of Taiwan’s National Space Technology Long-Term Development Programme, which began in 2019.
The Taiwan Space Agency (Tasa) said on Tuesday that the first unit had been shipped from its Hsinchu headquarters earlier in the day to be flown to the United States, with a launch scheduled for the “fourth quarter of this year”.
The satellite will be shipped to Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where it will be hauled into orbit by a SpaceX Transporter-15 rocket. The remaining seven satellites will be launched between 2026 and 2031.
