|
Israel
Part of “Very Exclusive Club of Space Spying”
 |
|
No
single dot in the Middle East escapes the spy satellite’s eye
|
OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, May 30 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - After launching
its new spy satellite, the Ofek-5, from a missile base south of Tel
Aviv, on Tuesday, May 28, Israel can see what its neighbors are doing
and lifts the country into an exclusive club of states with their own
spy satellite.
Israeli
specialists have already linked up with the new Ofek-5 (Horizon, in
Hebrew) spy satellite, which will start sending images as early as
Friday, May 31, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
“Since
yesterday, there is not a single dot in the Middle East that escapes
the spy satellite's eye,” the Israeli daily newspaper, Yediot
Aharonot, said Wednesday.
According
to AFP, the paper stressed that Israel is now part of the "very
exclusive club of space spying, to which the United States, China and
Russia also belong."
The
satellite, which circles the Earth every 90 minutes, will provide
pictures on troop movements, missiles launcher locations or the
construction of nuclear sites, said military experts, quoted by the
Israeli daily newspaper, Ma’ariv.
It
will be able to take pictures of objects as small as a meter (yard) in
length from a distance of 450 kilometers (270 miles).
Moreover,
it was the only satellite in the world launched in the opposite
direction of the Earth's rotation, from east to west, so as prevent it
falling into an Arab state if it crashed during take-off, AFP said.
The
satellite was launched only three days after Iran announced that it
had successfully tested its Shahab-3 missile, whose 1,300-kilometer
(808-mile) range could allow it to strike any point in Israel.
Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said “we know that the last [Iranian]
missile test was a success and it is very worrying.”
The
Ofek-5 is 2.3-meters long and 1.2 meters wide, weighs 300 kilograms
(660 pounds).
It
replaces the Ofek-3, launched in April 1995 and whose mission came to
an end in January 2001.
In
January 1998, Israel secretly launched Ofek-4, which self-destructed
after it failed to reach its orbit owing to technical problems.
With
a four-year-lifespan, Ofek-5 can photograph any region in the world 16
times a day.
The
satellite is a major asset for Israel’s military intelligence
services, especially in the event of a U.S. attack against Iraq, which
remains high on Washington’s agenda, AFP said.
The
Israeli press said that because of the new satellite, if Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein “decides to take his breakfast in his
palace courtyard, Ofek-5 will be able to pinpoint the table on which
his meal is being served.”.
|
