TEL AVIV Ñ Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told the cabinet Sunday that the new Ofeq-5 spy satellite has transmitted its first
images of the Middle East with a high resolution of less than a meter. Officials said the government may offer satellite services to India.
Israeli officials said the images were relayed from the low-orbit
satellite to a ground station in Israel over the weekend. The officials said
the images were the first sent by the satellite since its launch on Tuesday.
The quality of the photographs were termed as excellent. Officials
said the Defense Ministry is considering
offering satellite services to such allies as India and Turkey, Middle East Newsline reported.
Ben-Eliezer and a senior
space official briefed the Cabinet on last week's Ofeq-5 launch. Ben-Eliezer
said the satellite is among the most advanced in the world.
Ofeq-5 is undergoing a series of tests to determine the success of the
launch and its operations. Officials said the tests would last several weeks
and will be conducted by the state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries.
The satellite was placed into low-orbit by the Shavit-class solid-fuel,
three-stage booster. Manufactured by IAI's MLM Division, the Ofeq-5
completes an orbit of the earth every 90 minutes at an angle of inclination
143 degrees. Officials said a limitation of the satellite is that it can
return to photograph the same target every two to three days, thus
preventing constant surveillance.
The satellite's weight is about 300 kilograms with a height of 2.3
meters and 1.2 meter diameter. The weight of the Ofeq-5 is about one-third
more than Ofeq-3.
The Ofeq-5 contains a telescopic camera produced by El-Op Electro-Optic
Industries, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems. The system Ñ which acquires
images underneath and lateral to the satellite and in swaths ahead of its
trajectory -- is bigger than that installed on the Ofeq-3 and can produce
high-resolution images of 0.8 meters.
The Ofeq-5 has a shelf life of four years, IAI said. In January 1998,
Israel failed in its attempt to successfully launch Ofeq-4, which fell to
earth minutes after launch. The Defense Ministry then decided to build a
satellite with advanced technology.
Since December 2000 Israel's space-imaging needs have been met by
Eros-A. Eros-A, with a resolution of about 1.8 meters, is said to be
virtually identical to the Ofeq-3 and serves both civilian and military
clients. Ofeq-3 was said to have terminated operations at the end of 2000
and burned up in the atmosphere.
Officials said the combination of the Ofeq-5 and Eros-A satellites give
Israel virtually round-the-clock coverage of the Middle East. ImageSat
International, 30 percent of which is owned by IAI, plans to launch Eros-B
in 2004.
The Jane's Information Group reports that the 1998 launch was that of
the
first Eros satellite. The London-based group said Israel concealed this and
referred to the launch as that of Ofeq-4.
