The Defense Ministry suffered a costly loss yesterday when its launch of the Ofek-6 satellite failed and the craft plunged into the Mediterranean Sea. The loss is estimated at well over $50 million, not including lost income from countries such as India that had planned to purchase photos.
The failure was apparently due to a faulty electronic component that did not respond as it should have during the third stage of the launch. It occurred at the stage when the satellite was to have totally detached itself and entered its space orbit.
Israeli officials minimized the loss, saying it is not unusual in the space industry. They noted that the space agencies of Japan and Europe recently suffered even larger losses. Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz said that the failed launch would be studied in order to learn from its errors.
The Ofek-6, the sixth in a series of Israeli intelligence satellites built over the past 16 years, was to have been able to transmit pictures of even higher resolution than was available until now. It was to have provided Israel with extra warning time before a possible launch of Iranian missiles towards Israel.
The Ofek-6 was also likely to be used for political purposes: to map out the precise borders of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, in order to know where to ban all further construction. Just yesterday, Haaretz military correspondent Ze'ev Schiff wrote that the Defense Ministry had long been considering the option of using the Ofek-6 to document the growth of Yesha communities, as "the authorities have been unable to collect sufficient data on the construction there."
One of the purposes of photographing all the Yesha communities, Schiff wrote, was to "compare the findings with the data collected by the American satellites engaged in documenting construction in the communities." He wrote that Israel faces the problem of not having "one central information center with all the details on the borders of all the settlements." This is the reason why the visit of American Defense Department officials, scheduled for this week, was postponed - as Israel said it did not have sufficient data.
Prime Minister Sharon promised the Americans this past April to find a satisfactory way to define the existing construction lines in the Yesha towns - but has not yet done so. The fall of the Ofek-6 does not make the job any easier.
The failure was apparently due to a faulty electronic component that did not respond as it should have during the third stage of the launch. It occurred at the stage when the satellite was to have totally detached itself and entered its space orbit.
Israeli officials minimized the loss, saying it is not unusual in the space industry. They noted that the space agencies of Japan and Europe recently suffered even larger losses. Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz said that the failed launch would be studied in order to learn from its errors.
The Ofek-6, the sixth in a series of Israeli intelligence satellites built over the past 16 years, was to have been able to transmit pictures of even higher resolution than was available until now. It was to have provided Israel with extra warning time before a possible launch of Iranian missiles towards Israel.
The Ofek-6 was also likely to be used for political purposes: to map out the precise borders of the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria, in order to know where to ban all further construction. Just yesterday, Haaretz military correspondent Ze'ev Schiff wrote that the Defense Ministry had long been considering the option of using the Ofek-6 to document the growth of Yesha communities, as "the authorities have been unable to collect sufficient data on the construction there."
One of the purposes of photographing all the Yesha communities, Schiff wrote, was to "compare the findings with the data collected by the American satellites engaged in documenting construction in the communities." He wrote that Israel faces the problem of not having "one central information center with all the details on the borders of all the settlements." This is the reason why the visit of American Defense Department officials, scheduled for this week, was postponed - as Israel said it did not have sufficient data.
Prime Minister Sharon promised the Americans this past April to find a satisfactory way to define the existing construction lines in the Yesha towns - but has not yet done so. The fall of the Ofek-6 does not make the job any easier.