Fear of damage to Israel's strategic warning capability; The security system uses satellite images of commercial companies; The satellite has been transmitting images from space for more than five years
24.9.2001
By: Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz
Contact with the Israeli photography satellite "Ofek" 3, which transmitted images from space for more than five years, has been lost, Haaretz has learned. There is a fear that the satellite's decline will harm Israel's strategic warning capability. "Ofek" 3 circled the Earth once for about 90 minutes in a low elliptical orbit, at an altitude of about 450 km above the Earth. The satellite hovered parallel to the equator, and also north of it, over the Middle East, and visited each point once every 3-4 days.
Following the decline of "Ofek,"3 and in order to avoid harming Israel's strategic warning capability, the defense establishment now relies on the satellite images of two commercial companies: one is "Imagesat International", which is owned by Israeli companies and private investors, and the other is a foreign company.
