Satellite for Taiwan launched from California

An Earth-observation satellite for Taiwan's National Space Organization was launched into orbit from California on Thursday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Formosat-5 satellite lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. This is the 15th successful landing of a Falcon 9, which successfully landed its first stage on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean as the second stage continued on and deployed the satellite. (Matt Hartman via AP)

The Formosat-5 satellite lifted off from coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base at 11:51 a.m. atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which successfully landed its first stage on a drone ship floating in the Pacific Ocean as the second stage continued on and deployed the satellite.

Moments before the first-stage touchdown the video link to the vessel froze, then reappeared and showed the rocket standing. Cheers erupted in the SpaceX control room in the Los Angeles suburb Hawthorne.

"This is the 15th successful landing of a Falcon 9," said Lauren Lyons, the SpaceX webcast launch commentator.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Formosat-5 satellite lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. This is the 15th successful landing of a Falcon 9, which successfully landed its first stage on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean as the second stage continued on and deployed the satellite. (Matt Hartman via AP)

Formosat-5 is the first satellite to be fully designed by Taiwan's space agency and is intended to advance the nation's space technology and scientific research while providing global imagery with a wide array of uses ranging from natural resource studies to disaster management.

Planned to operate for five years in low-Earth orbit, about 446 miles (720 kilometers) high, its main instrument is a sensor that can produce high-resolution black-and-white and color images.
A predecessor satellite, Formosat-2, produced more than 2.5 million images over 12 years of operation before it wore out and was decommissioned a year ago.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Taiwan's National Space Organization satellite lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Thursday, Aug. 24, 2017. The Earth-observation satellite is the first to be fully designed by Taiwan's space agency and is intended to advance the nation's space technology and scientific research while providing global imagery with a wide array of uses. (Len Wood/The Santa Maria Times via AP)

Formosat-5 also carries a secondary payload, an ionospheric probe for scientific research.

The landing of the Falcon 9 first stage aboard the drone ship Just Read the Instructions was the latest in a string of successful recoveries at sea or on shore by SpaceX, which sees reusability of major rocket components as key to driving down launch costs.

This past March, SpaceX reused a Falcon 9 first stage for the first time in a satellite launch from Florida and again successfully landed it. That first stage originally flew on a space station supply mission in April 2016.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s space agency announced Friday a plan to launch a major upgrade to its satellite imaging system, as a new flagship rocket is put to the test for a third time.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency that an H3 rocket will be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center, on a southwestern Japanese island, early afternoon on June 30, with a launch window that runs through the end of July.

The rocket will be carrying an Advanced Land Observation Satellite, ALOS-4, tasked primarily with Earth observation and data collection for disaster response and mapmaking, as well as with monitoring military activity, such as missile launches, with an infrared sensor developed by the Defense Ministry. The ALOS-4 is a successor to the current ALOS-2 and can observe a much wider area.

The launch will be the H3's third, coming after a failed debut in March 2023 and a successful launch on Feb. 17. During the first attempt, the rocket's second stage engine did not ignite and the rocket had to be destroyed along with its main payload, a satellite that was supposed to be the ALOS-3.

During H3 No. 2's successful test flight, it carried two commercially-developed observation microsatellites and an ALOS mockup.

JAXA and its main contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have been developing H3 as a successor to its current mainstay, H-2A, which is set to retire after two more flights. MHI will eventually take over H3 production and launches from JAXA and hopes to make it commercially viable.

Japan sees a stable, commercially competitive space transport capability as key to the country's space program and national security.

The 57-meter (187-foot) long H3 rocket is designed to carry larger payloads than the H-2A at about half its launch cost.

FILE - JAXA H3 rocket project managers Masashi Okada, right, and Mayuki Niitsu brief journalists in front of the second stage of a H3 rocket, set for a full-fledged launch later this year after two test flights, inside the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works Tobishima Plant in Tobishima, Aichi prefecture Thursday, March 21, 2024. Japan’s space agency announced Friday, April 26, that it will launch its new flagship rocket H3 on June 30 carrying an observation satellite for disaster response and security purposes, a key mission that it had failed in its debut flight last year. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi, File)

FILE - A Mitsubishi Heavy Industries staff member stands next to the top of the first stage of a H3 rocket, inside the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works Tobishima Plant in Tobishima, Aichi prefecture Thursday, March 21, 2024. Japan’s space agency announced Friday, April 26, that it will launch its new flagship rocket H3 on June 30 carrying an observation satellite for disaster response and security purposes, a key mission that it had failed in its debut flight last year.(AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)