TOKYO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Japanese startup ArkEdge Space

said on Friday an observation satellite it helped build for

Taiwan's space agency has captured what could be the world's

best-quality Earth imagery from a spacecraft smaller than a

suitcase.

The small optical observation satellite ONGLAISAT took

2.5-metre resolution images after being released to orbit about

400 km above the Earth in December, the company said.

"The pictures are as clear as aerial photography (despite)

being taken by a satellite of this size," Takayoshi Fukuyo,

chief executive of ArkEdge, which led the ONGLAISAT mission,

told a media briefing earlier this week. He added that it was

probably the highest-resolution image ever captured by a small

"cubesat".

Black-and-white images released by ArkEdge showed land,

trees and buildings of places such as a Seattle suburb and

Argentina's Patagonia taken by ONGLAISAT late last month.

ONGLAISAT, acronym of "onboard globe-looking and imaging

satellite", mounts the Taiwan Space Agency's optical equipment

on a cubesat about the size of a desktop computer, co-developed

by ArkEdge and a University of Tokyo aerospace lab.

ONGLAISAT will end its mission in early March but the

optical technology it demonstrated will be applied to future

remote sensing satellite missions, TASA said in a Wednesday

statement.

With heightening tension with China, Taiwan is rushing to

secure space infrastructure in areas spanning from Earth

observation to communication, including a 2023 launch of

homemade weather satellite and talks with Amazon ( AMZN ) for

its satellite internet service Kuiper.

Taiwan's space buildup has also led to deepening ties with

commercial players in Japan, its neighbour and a close U.S.

ally.

TASA last year announced partnerships with other Japanese

space startups, including Space One and ispace,

providing payloads to their small rocket and moon lander,

respectively.

TiSpace, a Taiwanese private company founded by a former

TASA official, aims to test its rocket in a private launch pad

in northern Japan early this year.