The Israeli Space Agency is embarking on a new path with a large budget and a new CEO: Menachem Kidron

This is after the retirement of Dr. Zvi Kaplan, and after the government approved a budget of NIS 165 million for the space agency for the next two years to start a civilian program to promote industrial and research capabilities in the field of space. Chairman of the Space Agency, Prof. Yitzhak Ben Israel: The emphasis will be on further miniaturization and the preservation of capabilities in the field of communications

The government search committee that considered many candidates, among the defense industries, chose Menachem Kidron for the position of CEO of the Israel Space Agency. Kidron appeared today for the first time at a press conference as part of the annual space conference in memory of Ilan Ramon that takes place at the Air Force Base in Herzliya.

Kidron replaces Dr. Zvi Kaplan who served in the position for the past eight years and retired.

In his congratulatory remarks at the press conference, the Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz said: "I am happy to note that the search committee has completed its work and recommended me a certain candidate. I held talks with the members of the committee and other factors and received the recommendation, I brought it to the government and last Thursday the government will approve it for final approval here One that the new director of the Israeli Space Agency will be Menachem Kidron. Menachem is practically taking up his position these days. We completed within days the things involved in his reception. Menachem comes to us from Raphael. We are also pinning our hopes on this appointment, which receives the support of all industries thanks to its connections and knowledge, I hope that the personnel changes together with the budget and the special program will be able to announce many great achievements in the field in the near future."

The Chairman of the Israel Space Agency, Prof. and Major General Yitzhak Ben Israel commented on Kidron's choice: "We are at the beginning of the road, we also need to build the agency itself, build the mechanisms. Menachem Kidron was a member of the team that sat on the formulation of the program as part of his position at Raphael. Behind Kidron are decades of work in the field of space, and he is the right person to advance the renewed activity of the agency in the civilian direction."

The director general of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Menachem Greenblum said: "Success is built on people and the goal was to choose the person who can lead the State of Israel in the next 4-5 years to the ambitious goal of exports of 5 billion dollars in the field of space."

Menachem Kidron replied to the congratulators and said: "I wanted to thank the minister, the CEO and the chairman for the selection. They have made my life bitter in the last weeks and months. I will do everything so that we succeed. I come from the industry, in a few months I will close 40 years of working at Rafael, I graduated from the Technion at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and quickly arrived at Rafael. I worked in all aspects related to rocket propulsion and missiles of various types - including in the satellite launcher of the State of Israel - the third phase was developed by us and I was the head of the project and responsible for it.

Over the years I progressed and 13 years ago I became VP and head of a division, I managed many systems in the scope of 500-600 million shekels per year. In the division, which employs about a thousand people - we developed many projects, a significant part of which dealt with space from the beginning of space in Israel in 1982, we were involved in the satellite launcher, and in everything related to propulsion into space - hydrazine systems which are the life of the satellite almost from the moment it is put into the final orbit and throughout its life - propulsion, moving the track,] turning the solar panels turning the telescope, and more. For the past two years, I have served as the head of the Space Administration at Rafael, responsible for all divisions, including the missile division. In this framework we dealt with all areas, I was the head of the Venus project, and we were in contact with the Israeli Space Agency and tried to establish good working relationships with the aerospace industry and international bodies.

"As for my vision: I see activity in space first and foremost as technological leverage, the US did not intend to make money or business out of space, but it created one thing - in the entire world they created a technological leap. A space system has special materials, resistant to temperature changes, communication over huge distances, transfer of a lot of information in a short time, navigation, control, electronics, miniaturization, all these things gave a tremendous boost to the space industry and the technological progress of the entire universe. I see this as the tremendous platform for further advancing space technologies.