Israel launches new spy satellite into orbit

Ofek-11 joins Defense Ministry's fleet of reconnaissance satellites providing intel, 12 days after Amos-6 was destroyed on US launchpad

By Judah Ari Gross
  • Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
 13 September 2016, 7:27 pm

The Defense Ministry launched the Ofek-11 reconnaissance satellite into orbit from an air force base in central Israel on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.

The Israel Aerospace Industries satellite was launched using a Shavit rocket, a locally designed space launch vehicle.

It was shot into space from the Palmachim Air Base, just outside the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion, at approximately 5:30 p.m.

The Ofek-11 is an upgrade from the Ofek-10 satellite launched in April 2014. It will join the approximately 10 other satellites, including the Ofek-10, Ofek-9, Ofek-7 and Ofek-5, that feed intelligence to Israel’s security forces.

The Amos-6, Israel’s largest ever satellite, and the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on which it was perched go up in flames after the rocket exploded on the launch pad during a static fire test at a launch facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida on September 1, 2016. (YouTube screen capture)

The satellite launch comes less than two weeks after the civilian Amos-6 communications satellite was destroyed when the SpaceX rocket carrying it exploded on the launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Facebook had planned to use the satellite, which was built by Israeli company Spacecom, to beam high-speed internet to sub-Saharan Africa.

read more: