![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/P01-251130-003.jpg\")
<\/p>\n MEMORIAL:
\n The first satellite was named after Chi Po-lin, whose aerial photography of Taiwan showed its natural beauty, but also revealed environmental degradation <\/p>\n
The first satellite of the Taiwan-made Formosat-8 constellation project successfully lifted off yesterday morning from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, according to the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA).<\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s Transporter-15 rocket carried the satellite, named the \u201cChi Po-lin Satellite\u201d (\u9f4a\u67cf\u6797\u885b\u661f) after the late Taiwanese documentary director known for recording Taiwan through aerial imagery, into space at 2:44am after a slight delay from the scheduled launch time of 2:18am, to avoid a possible collision with another satellite in orbit, TASA said.<\/p>\n
The satellite, codenamed FS-8A, is one of eight in the Formosat-8 constellation and is expected to capture ground details at a resolution of 1m, sharpening to 0.7m after processing, to study the frequent natural disasters and security risks Taiwan faces.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Space Agency<\/p>\n
During the countdown of the launch, TASA Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (\u5433\u5b97\u4fe1) said he was very nervous, as the FS-8A felt like his own baby. <\/p>\n
Now the satellite has been launched, Wu said he has embraced high expectations that it would leverage high-resolution imagery to collect data multiple times a day to provide comprehensive observation capabilities.<\/p>\n
The launch of FS-8A had been postponed five times due to conflicts in launch schedules, a US government shutdown and the need for more preparatory work, project leader Cynthia Liu (\u5289\u5c0f\u83c1) said.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/P01-251130-602.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Space Agency <\/p>\n
According to TASA, the Formosat-8 constellation would be able to do more than just provide clearer images; it would be operating in a sun-synchronous orbit 561km above Earth.<\/p>\n
With more satellites, Formosat-8\u2019s revisit rate \u2014 the frequency of imaging the same location on Earth \u2014 would also improve, according to Liu.<\/p>\n
President William Lai (\u8cf4\u6e05\u5fb7), who named the satellite, in a recorded video said that the successful launch of FS-8A is not only the beginning of the Formosat-8 project, but also a milestone in Taiwan\u2019s space industry development.<\/p>\n
Citing an ambition unveiled in his inauguration speech on May 20 last year, Lai said the government would continue to work with industry and academia to develop the next generation of medium and low-orbit communications satellites to put Taiwan\u2019s space and aerospace industries on the international stage.<\/p>\n
Lai expressed gratitude for the efforts of the local space industry to make the launch of FS-8A a reality, to allow the Chi Po-lin Satellite to safeguard Taiwan, and to let the world witness Taiwan\u2019s ambitions, courage and achievements.<\/p>\n
National Science and Technology Council Minister Wu Cheng-wen (\u5433\u8aa0\u6587) said the satellite showcased Taiwan\u2019s strength in the space industry, and the launch is expected to pave the way for diversified applications and value-added services in aerial imagery, which would bring tremendous business opportunities for Taiwanese tech firms.<\/p>\n
Chi\u2019s son, Chi Yen-huan (\u9f4a\u5ef6\u6d39), described the launch as replacing his father as a protector of Taiwan, but from a higher perspective.<\/p>\n
His father filmed eye-opening aerial imagery and videos of Taiwan, which showed its natural beauty, but also environmental degradation when its land and rivers are exploited for profit and not well taken care of, he said.<\/p>\n
Chi Po-lin died in a helicopter crash in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cChi Po-lin is not only a person\u2019s name or an individual, but will represent Taiwan\u2019s spirit,\u201d the Chi Yen-huan said.<\/p>\n
The Formosat-8 constellation is expected to be fully deployed in 2031, and would \u201csupport disaster management, national security and global collaboration,\u201d according to a TASA video released last month to introduce the program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEMORIAL: The first satellite was named after Chi Po-lin, whose aerial photography of Taiwan showed its natural beauty,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145,5701,5700],"class_list":["post-160730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-space","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-5700"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}