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By barbara opall-rome
Published: 13 Feb 11:22 EST (06:22 GMT)
TEL AVIV - Israel's first 24-hour, all-weather, high-resolution radar satellite, dubbed TechSAR, was inserted into orbit Jan. 21 by an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
The launch from the Sriharikota test site on the Bay of Bengal in southeast India marked the seventh successful orbital insertion for the four-stage PSLV and the first cooperative satellite launch between Israel and its principal export customer, defense and industry officials here said.
According to state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Israel's sole satellite producing firm, first signals from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) spacecraft reached its operational ground control station near IAI headquarters about 80 minutes after the launch.
"By all indications so far, the satellite is functioning properly," IAI announced.
In a Jan. 21 statement, IAI said company engineers began an extensive, nearly monthlong series of in-orbit tests to verify satellite performance. First images from TechSAR are scheduled for receipt in about two weeks.
Israel's Ministry of Defense and national intelligence agencies are primary customers of the day, night and all-weather imagery generated by the TechSAR payload, developed by IAI subsidiary Elta Systems. Despite the strategic intelligence-gathering mission assigned to the nationally funded TechSAR, Israel's MoD did not provide a statement on the launch and referred all queries to IAI.
"We're all very proud of this achievement, which serves as additional proof of IAI's great technological and administrative capabilities, and of IAI's leadership in the Israeli space industry," said Itzhak Nissan, IAI's president and chief executive officer.
TechSAR's successful launch follows repeated technical and weather-related delays.
The Israeli satellite was delivered to the Indian launch facility by summer 2007 and had actually completed integration testing on the PSLV in time for an autumn 2007 launch. However, due to circumstances that neither IAI nor the Indian launch provider were willing to discuss publicly, the satellite was removed from its launch vehicle and held in storage until the weeks preceding the Jan. 21 launch.
Published: 13 Feb 11:22 EST (06:22 GMT)
TEL AVIV - Israel's first 24-hour, all-weather, high-resolution radar satellite, dubbed TechSAR, was inserted into orbit Jan. 21 by an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
The launch from the Sriharikota test site on the Bay of Bengal in southeast India marked the seventh successful orbital insertion for the four-stage PSLV and the first cooperative satellite launch between Israel and its principal export customer, defense and industry officials here said.
According to state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), Israel's sole satellite producing firm, first signals from the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) spacecraft reached its operational ground control station near IAI headquarters about 80 minutes after the launch.
"By all indications so far, the satellite is functioning properly," IAI announced.
In a Jan. 21 statement, IAI said company engineers began an extensive, nearly monthlong series of in-orbit tests to verify satellite performance. First images from TechSAR are scheduled for receipt in about two weeks.
Israel's Ministry of Defense and national intelligence agencies are primary customers of the day, night and all-weather imagery generated by the TechSAR payload, developed by IAI subsidiary Elta Systems. Despite the strategic intelligence-gathering mission assigned to the nationally funded TechSAR, Israel's MoD did not provide a statement on the launch and referred all queries to IAI.
"We're all very proud of this achievement, which serves as additional proof of IAI's great technological and administrative capabilities, and of IAI's leadership in the Israeli space industry," said Itzhak Nissan, IAI's president and chief executive officer.
TechSAR's successful launch follows repeated technical and weather-related delays.
The Israeli satellite was delivered to the Indian launch facility by summer 2007 and had actually completed integration testing on the PSLV in time for an autumn 2007 launch. However, due to circumstances that neither IAI nor the Indian launch provider were willing to discuss publicly, the satellite was removed from its launch vehicle and held in storage until the weeks preceding the Jan. 21 launch.
