As the count down approached zero simultaneously at Taiwan and United States, Minotaur rocket lifted off from Vandenberg at 9:40AM Taiwan time, April 15th of 2006. Fourteen minutes after the blastoff, six FORMOSAT-3 spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered designated orbit around 500 kilometers in altitude. Launcher returned the satellite separation vector via TDRSS confirmed the success of separation.

One hour and 23 minutes after separation, ground station located at Fairbanks, Alaska, received telemetry from FORMOSAT-3 and those satellites will make the first contact with Taiwan ground station seven hours and 52 minutes after the launch.

People attending this launch campaign from Taiwan and United States watch the final count down proceeded smoothly within one minutes before the FORMOSAT-3 launch. When the countdown approached zero, the rocket successfully ignited and lifted off. Together with NSC Minister Dr. Chen Chien-Jen in NSPO and NSC Deputy Minister Dr. Shieh Ching-Jyh in Vandenberg launch range, guests and contractor representatives shared the jubilation for the success of FORMOSAT-3 mission. President Chen Shui-Bian and Vice President Lu Hsiu-Lien both issue congratulations to the FORMOSAT-3 team immediately after the success.

The development of FORMOSAT-3 constellation spans four years and those spacecrafts need additional 13 months to transfer from parking orbits to six different mission orbits at 700~800 kilometer above the earth ground. These satellites orbit around the earth to form a low-earth-orbit constellation that will receive signals transmitted by the 24 US GPS satellites. The satellite observation covers the entire global atmosphere and ionosphere, providing over 2,500 global sounding data per day. These data distribute uniformly over the earth's atmosphere. The global climate information collection and analysis can be completed in three hours while the sounding data will be updated every 90 minutes. Upon the completion of this project, the frequency of updating weather forecast can be increased so that the weather reports can be more efficient. In addition, this system can also be used as the long-term climate change research, interactive ionosphere monitoring, global space weather forecast, and earth gravity research. In the future, Taiwan will be able to exchange climate observation data with foreign partners in order to enhance our position and importance in the international meteorology society.