Based on the mission requirements of remote sensing and science, the
National Space Program Office (NSPO, former name of the current National Space Organization) started the research and development (R&D)of the ROC satellite No. 2 (ROCSAT-2) (former name of the currentFORMOSAT-2, or simply FS2, the Formosa satellite No. 2). In other words,we keep the name ROCSAT-2 for the whole Program, and use the nameFORMOSAT-2 to be the satellite developed. The launch date of FS2 was on 20 (UTC time)/21 (Taiwan time) May 2004. As the first Earth observation satellite owned by Taiwan, FS2 is a small satellite of 746 kg mass designed for two remote sensing observation missions: earth observation and upward lightning observation. Its mission life is 5 years.Fourteen days after launch, the satellite had been raised from 723 km parking orbit to 891 km mission orbit, with functional checkout of all subsystems completed on 3 June 2004. Then the performance verification of bus and two payloads follows. For the bus, the performance verification items are agilities in pitch and roll maneuvers. The primary payload of FS2 is an advanced remote sensing instrument (RSI) with characteristics of high performance, low mass and simplicity in design. Performance verification items for RSI are ground sampling distance (GSD) for panchromatic (PAN)band, GSD for multi-spectral (MS) bands, modulation transfer function (MTF), swath, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). After receiving the first image on 4 June 2004, the verifications had been performed and completed in one month. The secondary payload of FS2 is an imager of sprites and upper atmospheric lightning (ISUAL). Other phenomena such as airglow,elves, blue jet, aurora, gravity wave, etc. are also observed. After the first
observation of sprites on 4 July 2004, performance verification for ISUAL
had been completed in two weeks. It had been concluded that all
performance items of FS2 had been successfully verified. Now, after the
completion of 5-year mission life, we take a look back and make a
comparison on the satellite performances. We find that FS2 not only has
completed its mission life, but also is still working efficiently in orbit. An extended life of 2 to 3 years could be expected.