TAIPEI, Taiwan — The first Taiwan-made satellite, FORMOSAT-5, will leave Wednesday night on a journey to California, where it will be launched into space on Aug. 25. The global imagery satellite was sent off in a ceremony in Hsinchu attended by government officials and scholars, complete with farewell songs by the Taoshan Elementary school choir and even soft drink cans and snack packages designed especially for the occasion. The satellite will capture imagery useful in assessing and preventing natural disasters. Its development was part of efforts to build up and demonstrate Taiwan's indigenous space technology as well as to promote advanced space science research in Taiwan, the NPO said. The FORMOSAT-5 will provide two-meter panchromatic and four-meter multi-spectrum images at various processing levels; also offer state-of-the-art ionospheric space science data for geoscience research, the organization added.

Source: The China Post July 19, 2017 08:48 UTC