The satellite, known as Wind Hunter, was launched from a launch site in French Guiana and carried by the Vega C - Arianespace's new-generation vehicle for small-to-medium satellite payloads. The spacecraft is travelling in a low-earth orbit with an altitude of 550 km to 650 km.
The Taiwan Space Agency's director-general, Wu Jong-shinn, said on Tuesday the agency's Director-General, Jiang Kang-shinn.
The satellite, known as Triton, was sent into space late on Sunday on Arianespace's Vega C ridesharing mission. The first weather probe was launched in 1988 by Beijing, and it took more than three decades to complete.
The launch had been planned for Saturday but was called off 14 seconds before ignition because of worries over certain monitoring data, Wu said. It was then cleared and rescheduled for Sunday evening.
Taiwan is frequently impacted by typhoons, and Wu said the satellite would be able to help weather forecasters accurately predict the intensity of a storm by tracking wind speeds through the data it gathers.
He said the satellite utilized an advanced technology developed by the island's space agency and local scientists known as Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry. The system monitors the speed of the ocean wind through reflections from the sea surface, and Taiwan is one of the few places in the world using such technology, Wu said.
Wu, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "It's a difficult issue to understand, and I'm still not sure what I'm talking about, he said.
More than 80 per cent of the satellite's technology was developed by Taiwan, Wu said, showing the island's 'dedication to pushing the boundaries of space exploration'. The 'groundbreaking' navigation system would provide substantial support for Taiwan becoming a player in the global space supply chain, he said.
While it is a milestone, Taiwan lagged behind on space development, he said. He also gave an example of South Korea, a programme that began in the early 1990s and now has a budget four to five times larger than Taiwan's. The island's space development programme is expected to cost NT$5.5 billion for this year.
Wu added that Taiwan's focus was satellites instead of rockets, and the island was seeking to make significant progress in this area in the next three to five years.
The government did not provide enough funding for the space agency and the scientists to develop the programme, but said Wu Shih-huai, a lawmaker with the main opposition Kuomintang party.
Although Triton is the island's first weather satellite, it is the second probe to be made in Taiwan. The first was an Earth observation satellite called FormoSat-5, which was launched in 2017 by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission was intended to gather colour and monochrome photos and measure plasma in the Earth's ionosphere.
The Chinese National Space Administration said its satellite, which was launched by a Long March 4C rocket, is equipped with advanced technology and was replacing the Fengyun-3C, which had been operating for nearly a decade. Since 1988, Beijing has launched 22 of the satellites.