JERUSALEM: Israel on Sunday (Jul 13) said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.
The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.
“This (US)$200 million ‘smartphone in space’ will power Israel’s strategic and civilian communications for 15 years,” the ministry wrote on X.
Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1.04am in Florida (1.04pm, Singapore time).
IAI, which called the launch “a historic leap for Israeli space technology”, said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was “the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel”.
In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel’s Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between US$200 and US$300 million.
