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 retued 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.