Taiwan's Low Earth Orbit Satellites on Show at Kaohsiung Expo

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan's nascent space industry is on show at an expo in Kaohsiung. The country hopes to build a communications system similar to SpaceX's Starlink and make itself an essential part of the global space supply chain.

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00:00Taiwan is shooting for the stars with its nascent space program, and nowhere is that

00:05more apparent than here at this international space exhibition in Kaohsiung in the country's

00:10south.

00:11It's only the second time that Taiwan's space agency, TASA, has hosted the conference

00:16since the country began heavily investing in its space program, and they're looking

00:20to do more.

00:21Taiwan has a supply chain for communication satellite including space and the ground segment,

00:28and also we hope we can build a supply chain for optical remote sensing satellites.

00:34Right now, Taiwan's space aspirations are also about bringing connections down to earth.

00:40So far, Taiwan's homegrown satellites like these are used primarily to gather data about

00:45the weather.

00:47But in the coming years, the country has another goal, making sure that its soldiers and civilians

00:52have access to the internet in a crisis, using terminals like these.

00:57Low Earth Orbit Communication Satellites provide users with direct data access from

01:02space, ensuring connectivity even if ground towers are damaged during natural disasters

01:07or conflicts.

01:08It's often compared to SpaceX's Starlink system, which has played a vital role in

01:13maintaining Ukraine's connectivity during Russia's invasion of the country.

01:18Actually, as you guys know, Taiwan is an island, and most of our traffic goes through the submarine

01:25cable, and all goes to the fixed line in Taiwan locally.

01:29And satellite communication is quite brittle for us, just in case if there's any cut for

01:35the submarine cable or any cut in the fixed line in Taiwan.

01:39So SACON is like the final option of all the communication.

01:45Taiwan wants to keep most of the system in-house, hoping 80% of it will be produced domestically.

01:50The first of six initial communication satellites is scheduled to be launched in 2027.

01:56Taiwan wants not only to develop its domestic space program, but also to be a critical partner

02:01in global space supply chains, capitalizing on its capabilities in hardware manufacturing.

02:07If those efforts succeed, Taiwan and its whole space industry could be taken to a new frontier.

02:13Devin Tsai, Alec McDonald, and Chris Gorin for Taiwan Plus.

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