Thailand’s space authorities have expressed an interest in collaborating with Taiwan as the country tries to get its domestically built satellite off the ground.
Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO) organized a workshop on Tuesday (Aug. 27) at Thailand’s Space Week, which is held from August 27-29 in Bangkok. NSPO officials talked about their research on data cubes and shared their experiences in successfully developing satellites in recent years.
Damrongrit Niammuad, deputy director of Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), said the country is looking forward to consulting with Taiwan about building satellites, reported the Central News Agency. The southeast Asian nation is planning to launch its first domestically built satellite in four years, following in the footsteps of Taiwan’s 2017 launch.
The deputy director also said he hopes to facilitate exchanges between space scientists and industry representatives of the two countries. Yang Shang-kuo (楊善國), a representative of Taiwan’s National Applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs), which administers NSPO, said the country’s space organization has worked with GISTDA for a long time.
Taiwan launched its first remote sensing satellite, FORMOSAT-2, in 2004. The satellite was built by the French company EADS Astrium, which also constructed Thailand’s Thaichote satellite.
Since the launch of Thaichote in 2008, Thai officials have regularly sought advice from Taiwan on the maintenance of its satellite, according to Yang. As Thailand has the ambition to build its own satellite, Yang anticipated that the two countries will step up cooperation in space science.
By Taiwan News
