Israel Launches New Spy Satellite; Iran ‘Under the Microscope’

Israel National News ^ | June 22, 2010 | Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

[Tzvi INN.com]

Israel successfully launched the ”Ofek 9” military spy satellite late Tuesday night from the Palmakhim base in central Israel, south of Tel Aviv, and the Defense Ministry said all systems are working.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Spy satellite. Maybe with targeting laser?

[gulfcoast6]

Ummm, wonder how long ago they did this..You can bet Isreal has them in their sights.

[Blueflag]

You’ll note it is called the Ofek 9, implying there was an 8, a 7 and so on.

[gulfcoast6]

RIGHT!!

[Rebelbase]

"Maybe with targeting laser?"

[backwoods-engineer]

I wonder what the orbit is. If I was designing it, I would put it in a near-Molinya orbit, with the apogee over Iran for maximum "stare" time. If they did it right, it would appear over Iran for about 8 hours every 2nd day. LOTS of time to watch what's going on...

[TheThirdRuffian]

Death Star of David

[TopQuark]

For all practical purposes, the preceding ones may have blown up during the tests.

[Mr170IQ]

> For all practical purposes, the preceding ones may have blown up during the tests.

Try ten seconds of research before you make yourself look silly - Israel has been launching their own spy satellites for 22 years now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ofek

Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek (Hebrew: lit. Horizon) is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one earth orbit every 90 minutes. The satellite launches made Israel only the eighth nation to gain an indigenous launch capability. Both the satellites and the launchers were designed and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with Elbit Systems’ El-Op division supplying the optical payload.

[TopQuark]

TQ: "> For all practical purposes, the preceding ones may have blown up during the tests. MR: "Try ten seconds of research before you make yourself look silly - Israel has been launching their own spy satellites for 22 years now."

You sound like like on an Oriental bazaar. I pointed out that merely from the fact that a satellite is called Something N it does not follow that N-1 satellites of that type are in orbit. No research, only logic, is needed for that assertion.

In the future, please realize that a one-sentence post may be easily misinterpreted by someone entering a discussion of others. Not to look childish and silly, ask clarifying questions before arriving at your conclusions.