Taiwan hit a milestone Monday with the successful launch of its inaugural domestically-produced Triton weather satellite, also known as the Wind-Hunter Satellite, which is set to help accurately predict extreme weather events.
The satellite was launched from French Guiana at 10:37 p.m. local time on Sunday (9:37 a.m. Monday Taiwan time) as part of an Arianespace Vega C rideshare mission, that is destined for orbit at an altitude of approximately 550-650 kilometers, according to the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA).
TASA Director-General Wu Jong-shinn (吳宗信) previously told the press that the Triton project, initiated in 2013, had finally reached its launch phase after 10 years of hard work.
Wu emphasized that the launch of Triton was Taiwan's first foray into using domestically engineered weather satellites and that the components used were designed and manufactured locally, including Taiwan's proprietary global navigation satellite system-reflectometry (GNSS-R).
