Less than a dozen years ago, Israel became the eighth country in the world to build its own satellite and launch it with its own launcher. Since then, local universities, research institutes and private industry, backed by the Israel Space Agency, have made giant strides in the world's final frontier.
Beginnings
On September 19, 1988, Israel launched its first satellite, Ofeq-1, using an Israeli-built Shavit three-stage launch vehicle. By independently building and launching its own satellite, Israel joined an exclusive club, which includes the United States, Russia, England, Japan, India, France and China.
At the time, the launching was the high point of a process that had begun in 1983, with the establishment of the Israel Space Agency under the aegis of the Ministry of Science. Space research by university-based scientists had already begun in the 1960s, providing a ready-made pool of experts for Israel's entry into the space age. The agency's role: to support private and academic space projects, coordinate their efforts, initiate and develop international relations and projects, head integrative projects involving different bodies, and create public awareness for the importance of space development.
The Driving Force
Space-Based Research
Furthermore, because of the need to miniaturize the size of satellite technology, NASA, the US space agency, has developed computers much smaller than the large machinery originally in use. The new components paved the way for the development of small, portable computers and other small systems.
The Commercial Space Arena
On May 16, 1996, a French-built vehicle launched the commercial satellite Amos, developed by the Israel Aircraft Industries, into the sky. The Amos is distinguished for its light weight and sophisticated technology.
Israel is also actively involved in the TAUVEX (Tel Aviv University Ultra Violet Explorer), developed by an Israeli hi-tech firm. TAUVEX is a cluster of three ultra-violet telescopes funded by the Israel Space Agency. It is due to be launched by Russia as part of a space observatory carrying advanced instruments from a number of countries.
Other local projects include the Techsat, a satellite developed by the Technion, and the pending manufacture of the David, a commercial remote sensing satellite developed jointly by an Israeli hi-tech company and a German firm. Tel Aviv University is conducting research based on G.P.S.T. (global positioning system technology); Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is at work along with a private company on desert research and ground humidity; and Bar-Ilan University makes use of imaging techniques to seek surface saline concentrations.
International Cooperation
Israel has made big enough strides to have been accepted into the international community of space researchers, and it has formal space research cooperation agreements with the US, France, Germany, Russia and Holland. The projects that these agreements have yielded will enable Israel to maintain its place in the vanguard of space research in the years to come.
But Ofeq-1 could not have gotten off the ground without the earlier and simultaneous hi-tech developments in electronics, computers, electro-optics, and imaging techniques. The main contribution has been in the field of miniaturization, where Israeli engineers have made great progress. Lighter satellites are more efficient and save hundreds of thousands of dollars per launching. Thanks to the advances made by their colleagues in other fields, all the satellites produced by Israeli space scientists are noted for their light weight and small size.
Nevertheless, it is only in the past decade-and-a-half that the importance of space research has been recognized. Nowadays, satellites are essential, among other things, for state-of-the-art media and telephone communications, meteorological forecasting, and air, sea and land navigation. Space activity has also been instrumental in other fields, including desert research, medicine, crystal cultivation and miniaturized computers. For example, studies on the development of osteoporosis are much speedier in micro-gravitational environments than on the earth's surface. Processes that take as much as 10 years on earth can take six months in space. Space conditions also allow for the creation of perfect crystals, which are used in the electronics and medical fields. The study of fuel combustion is also more efficient in a non-gravitational environment.
Since the launching of that first satellite, Israel has developed into a significant player in the commercial space arena. In 1989, it launched Ofeq-2; in April 1995, it took a leap forward with the launch of Ofeq-3, which carried an advanced electro-optical payload built by Israeli industry for local purposes. Ofeq-3 has been functioning without a hitch. Following a setback with Ofeq-4, Ofeq-5 was successfully launched in May 2002.
Within two years, Israel may also have its first astronaut. The government is examining the possibility of conducting a scientific experiment under the auspices of the Israel Space Agency and with the help of NASA. The astronaut has already been chosen, but his name is still being kept under wraps.