The saga surrounding the space company's decision to build the Amos 8 satellite in the USA, and the aerospace industry's decision to build a satellite and market it on its own, hinting that the government will transfer the communications projects to it, reached the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange today
The saga surrounding the space company's next communications satellite is still ongoing. Israel Aerospace Industries' announcement that it will develop a communications satellite and sell its services itself to the government, and the encouraging responses it received from the government in the form of the Ministry of Science that they would support the process, Communications Space reported yesterday in an immediate report to the stock exchange Through the deputy CEO of the company Yitzhak Shniberg in which it is written that the essence of the event: a message on behalf of the government.
"Continuing to the company's announcement regarding its entering into an agreement for the purchase of an Amos 8 satellite with LORAL SPACE SYSTEMS, LLC, the company received on April 2018.4.29, 4 a letter from a government agency, the main part of which is a notification of the government agencies' intention to act on the realization of a satellite in Israel to the W°XNUMX sky point in accordance with their needs . The company is unable to assess the feasibility and the chance of realizing such a satellite."
Further to the announcement of the Communications Space Company that went public today, the Ministry of Science and Technology clarifies that the government has been working since December 2016 to promote the development and realization of a communications satellite owned by the State of Israel that will be built in the Israeli space industries. The Director General of the Ministry of Science, Peretz Wezan, recently stated in a debate in the Knesset that the Ministry is ready to allocate additional budgets to the issue and called on the Ministry of Finance to allocate resources to the issue.
In response, the Ministry of Science issued the following response:
"After the space company's decision to independently implement a foreign-made satellite, the government informed the space company that it continues its original position for the realization of a communication satellite made by Blue and White."
"The government's intention continues the line set by the space committee headed by the director general of the Ministry of Science and Zahn in December 2016. According to the committee's recommendations, the best plan that takes into account all the needs and the cost to the country is to use commercial communication satellites made in Israel and operate them through an Israeli company. Since the cost of communication satellites made in Israel is higher than their cost on the world market, the committee states that it is necessary to draw up an outline that will enable the development of infrastructure and capabilities in order to bridge the cost gap."
"According to the committee's report: "An array of communications satellites strengthens Israel's communications redundancy and security during an emergency." The committee determined that the State of Israel has a vital need for independent capabilities to obtain information and transmit it through Israeli communication satellites," the Ministry of Science said in a statement.
As mentioned, it is also clear to the government that the aerospace industry is less competitive compared to companies that produce hundreds of satellites a year, so taxpayer money will have to pay the difference, but it is also clear that satellite infrastructure is important for an isolated country like Israel, which today depends on several submarine cables. This is of course in addition to the issue of preserving the knowledge accumulated in the aerospace industry in the development of the previous Amos satellites, when a fear was expressed that the IA would have to disperse the teams, fire some of the employees and transfer others to other fields, which would not allow the knowledge gained to be preserved.
The explosion of the Amos 6 satellite therefore the launch in 2016 came exactly at a critical stage and after that there were mutual accusations between the space company and the aerospace industry according to which the other side was the one that caused a backup satellite not to be built.
The Masada Space Company is obligated to its shareholders to purchase the satellites at the cheapest price. Apparently the government claims that it will simply compete with a space company, and since it is the anchor customer of Amos satellites, it may cause difficulties in raising funds for the construction of Amos 8 in the USA by LLC. Therefore the commentators see this as an attempt to bend the space company so that it will purchase a satellite from the aerospace industry.
On the same topic on the science website:
Ministry of Science: "We will promote a communication satellite owned by the Israeli government"
After the communication space announcement of the purchase of Amos 8 from L'Oreal, TEA will build a communication satellite and market it itself
Amos 8 will not be built in the aviation industry. Chalal Communications signed an agreement to purchase it from L'Oreal
