Israel Launches Newest Spy Satellite

June 23, 2010 at 3:18 am | Posted in Remote Sensing Law Current Events | Leave a comment

by Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz with the blog faculty

Source: Space News

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel successfully delivered its latest spy satellite into low Earth orbit June 22 using an improved version of its indigenous Shavit launcher, defense sources here said.

An official Ministry of Defense (MoD) notice of launch, which took place around 10 p.m. local time, is expected by midnight, once technicians ascertain initial functioning of the Ofeq-9 imaging satellite. By June 25, officials say they should be able to validate the operational capability of the 300-kilogram satellite and its subsystems and begin receiving the first pictures from its high-resolution sensor.

“We delivered it perfectly, but we’re still waiting to hear the baby’s screams,” said Chaim Eshed, director for space programs at Israel’s MoD.

Ofeq-9 is a “twin brother” of the Shavit-launched Ofeq-7 and Ofeq-5 satellites, the former operational since June 2007 and the latter since June 2002. A September 2004 launch failure destroyed Ofeq-6, while TecSAR, Israel’s synthetic aperture radar satellite, was successfully launched by an Indian rocket in January 2008 and now occupies the Ofeq-8 slot in the Israeli MoD lineup. More…