TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) will launch the Wind-Hunter weather satellite this year, while the country is preparing to invest NT$25.1 billion ($816.49 million) in a national space team within the next decade, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said Friday (Jan. 6).

The president attended a ceremony in Hsinchu City to mark the renaming of the National Space Organization (NSPO) in TASA, which was upgraded to a status directly under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), the Liberty Times reported.

As to the Wind-Hunter or TRITON, it would be launched in June, TASA officials said. The satellite’s up-to-date technology made it uniquely qualified to track down typhoons, measuring the height of waves, wind speeds, strengths and paths of tropical storms from an altitude of 500 to 600 kilometers. Observing developments on the surface of the ocean was its main function, according to TASA.

During her visit to its Hsinchu headquarters, President Tsai said Taiwan could not remain absent from the international development of space technology and from the race to launch low earth orbit satellites. Following 30 years of history as the NSPO launching the Formosat series of satellites, the newly renamed TASA was ready to train Taiwanese talent and seize business opportunities in space, Tsai said.