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Israel launches new satellite to spy on Iran

Israel today launched a powerful spy satellite to keep watch on Iran, its main threat in the region.
The TecSar satellite has an advanced radar system that should allow Israeli intelligence officials to gather material at night and in cloudy weather, a capacity beyond current Israeli satellites.

Reportedly capable of imaging with a resolution of up to 10 centimetres, TecSar is considered crucial to enable Israel to track Iran's nuclear activities. Israel suspects Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, despite conclusions to the contrary by US intelligence agencies.

Last November, a US intelligence report stated that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme, a finding that undermined hawks in the US who had been pushing for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Israel, however, has publicly disagreed with the US intelligence finding.

Israel's most advanced satellite was sent into orbit by an Indian rocket from the Sriharikota launching range in south-east India. It was the first time an Israeli satellite had been launched by an Indian rocket.

The decision to use an Indian vehicle was reached three years ago during a visit by the then defence ministry director-general Amos Yaron and marks growing Indian-Israeli cooperation. Two more satellites using Indian rockets are scheduled.

The TecSar, manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), uses radar to identify targets. The use of radar marks a considerable advance on Israel's Ofek series of reconnaissance satellites that rely on cameras.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the satellite, weighing some 300 kilogrammes, was launched at 5:45am (3.45am GMT), and was successfully placed in orbit.

Scientists and engineers are now conducting tests to check the systems and gauge their performance. First pictures from the satellite are expected within two weeks.

The TecSar launch was postponed a number of times, largely due to weather conditions.

Israel operates a number of reconnaissance satellites, including Ofek 5 and Ofek 7, as well as several commercial satellites, such as the Amos and Eros series. A total of 11 Israeli satellites have been placed in orbit, a number of them still operational.

"The TecSar is the first satellite of its kind developed in Israel, and ranks among the world's most advanced space systems," IAI said in a statement.

The satellite includes an advanced imaging system based on synthetic aperture radar, or SAR, technology, the statement said. The development and launch cost tens of millions of dollars.


Click to view image: '143421-satellite.gif'

Added: Jan-21-2008 
By: A-A-M
In: Iran, Middle East
Tags: israel, iran, spy, satellite
Marked as: approved, repost
Views: 7860 | Comments: 21 | Votes: 0 | Favorites: 1 | Shared: 1 | Updates: 0 | Times used in channels: 1
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  • Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off.

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    SimpleSiren (786.74)

    (1)

  • trancefreak64: "
    A-A-M: "
    SimpleSiren: "Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off."
    Where do you think they have got all their "power what they need" man?
    They need US help all the time, allways needed and will allways need.
    And when they start this war, they need every fucking day US suppl More..
    your right dude i dont think isreal has a chance against the arab states. they would get shamiled :)"
    You do know Israelis have wared with 5 arab countries at once. First on the arabs were beat with 5 german ww2 planes, 2 french artilery pieces and a couple of british guys ontw to the beach that found an old roman road which let supplies pass when they were blocked.

    Second time was cause Arabs cannot work toghther like usual and their generals are so piss poor at war that they failed to get palestinian land that they wanted for them selves. Now all these arab neighbors are for the palestinians land to be returned but its cause of land they lost during the second war. Wed be giving Jordan land back and lebanoese land back. Palestinians were the step children of these arab nations and treated them worse than Israel ever did. Look at history. More palestianians have been killed by arabs then anyone else ever.

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    SimpleSiren (786.74)

    (1)

  • SimpleSiren: "
    A-A-M: "
    SimpleSiren: "Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off."
    Where do you think they have got all their "power what they need" man?
    They need US help all the time, allways needed and will allways need.
    And when they start this war, they need every fucking day US supplie More..
    Yea but you do realise Israel is one of the top military sciences in the world. They are developing stuff out of the will to survive. Theyll need money that they already get but they dont need our boots or planes. They have their own.

    Either way i doubt Israelis will ever step foot in Iran they will just take out military targets and put their army back 20 years."
    All True.

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    MajorGeneralDespair (104.68)
    MajorGeneralDespair
    View Channel
    Send Message

    (1)

  • trancefreak64: "
    A-A-M: "
    SimpleSiren: "Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off."
    Where do you think they have got all their "power what they need" man?
    They need US help all the time, allways needed and will allways need.
    And when they start this war, they need every fucking day US suppl More..
    your right dude i dont think isreal has a chance against the arab states. they would get shamiled :)"
    Not by a long shot. Israel defended its country for years against many neighboring countries with great success. Thats one thing people do not want to think because Israel is the strongest nation in that region by far. Yes they do get there technology from the US and we do decide what Israel does either you believe me or not its true. Again I dont want the USA to get involved with it any which way. Israel can deal with Iran if needed to be. I would not have a problem with US weapons doing the job but I dont want US troops to be involved with such an attack.

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    hlabrake (678.14)

    (1)

  • Comment of user 'injui' has been deleted by moderator!

  • Hezbollah attained what? They just used terrorist tactics to continue to use terrorist tactics no real military victory was achieved they received nothing, Israel didn't lose any land Hezbollah lost more men they just didn't give up the people they kidnapped. Hezbollah's own reports say lost more soldiers than the Israelis and then you think that 1-2 kidnapped soliders not being freed is a victory? Get real. Israel exists after many attempts to get rid of it. Hezbollah wouldn't be anything with More..

    Posted Jan-22-2008 By 
    txzen (181.48)  

    (1)

  • Iran is just a bombing away

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    noliberals (178.80)  
    noliberals
    Send Message

    (0)

  • txzen: "Hezbollah attained what? They just used terrorist tactics to continue to use terrorist tactics no real military victory was achieved they received nothing, Israel didn't lose any land Hezbollah lost more men they just didn't give up the people they kidnapped. Hezbollah's own reports say lost more soldiers than the Israelis and then you think that 1-2 kidnapped soliders not being freed is a victory? Get real. Israel exists after many attempts to get rid of it. Hezbollah wouldn't be anything with Iran and syria and yet you think that the US helping Israel makes Israel something less. You are such an idiotic hypocrit to think that a terrorist organization being backed by Iran and Syria has their own power compared to Israel that does have it's own industrial base look at Rafale and technologies like the Tavar and the merkava they are made in Israel, what does Hezbollah make? "
    O More..

    Posted Jan-22-2008 By 
    A-A-M (300.12)  

    (0)

  • You really think Iraq is going to fight on the side of Iran and Syria? Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel, Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel. Lebanon also has been fairly peaceful with Israel just the minority hezbollah that has a problem. What about in 1967 and weren't there 5 arab nations against Israel and Israel took their staging grounds? And then in 1973 3 arab nations and Israel turned them back again? Israel has been getting stronger much faster than Iran and Syria. Iran has been u More..

    Posted Jan-22-2008 By 
    txzen (181.48)  

    (0)

  • SimpleSiren: "Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off."
    Where do you think they have got all their "power what they need" man?
    They need US help all the time, allways needed and will allways need.
    And when they start this war, they need every fucking day US supplies, so i think that is US help.
    More..

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    A-A-M (300.12)  

    (0)

  • My point was why bitch and moan about the US helping Israel when hezbollah is backed by Iran and Syria? The facts are that the US will supply Israel with whatever they want to buy and Iran and Syria will supply Hezbollah with whatever they can afford to donate. Pretending that the US wouldn't help Israel is just that pretend, just like to pretend that hezbollah is what it is with out any help from Iran and Syria. If Israel did what hamas and hezbollah do, just fire all their rockets at their &qu More..

    Posted Jan-22-2008 By 
    txzen (181.48)  

    (0)

  • noliberals: "Iran is just a bombing away"
    Perhaps, and it aint a good thing.

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    A-A-M (300.12)  

    (0)

  • SimpleSiren: "
    trancefreak64: "
    A-A-M: "
    SimpleSiren: "Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off."
    Where do you think they have got all their "power what they need" man?
    They need US help all the time, allways needed and will allways need.
    And when they start this war, they need every f More..
    your right dude i dont think isreal has a chance against the arab states. they would get shamiled :)"
    You do know Israelis have wared with 5 arab countries at once. First on the arabs were beat with 5 german ww2 planes, 2 french artilery pieces and a couple of british guys ontw to the beach that found an old roman road which let supplies pass when they were blocked.

    Second time was cause Arabs cannot work toghther like usual and their generals are so piss poor at war that they failed to get palestinian land that they wanted for them selves. Now all these arab neighbors are for the palestinians land to be returned but its cause of land they lost during the second war. Wed be giving Jordan land back and lebanoese land back. Palestinians were the step children of these arab nations and treated them worse than Israel ever did. Look at history. More palestianians have been killed by arabs then anyone else ever."
    So true.

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    tazzzwannabe2 (1949.12)

    (0)

  • A-A-M: "
    SimpleSiren: "Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off."
    Where do you think they have got all their "power what they need" man?
    They need US help all the time, allways needed and will allways need.
    And when they start this war, they need every fucking day US supplies, so i think that More..
    Yea but you do realise Israel is one of the top military sciences in the world. They are developing stuff out of the will to survive. Theyll need money that they already get but they dont need our boots or planes. They have their own.

    Either way i doubt Israelis will ever step foot in Iran they will just take out military targets and put their army back 20 years.

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    SimpleSiren (786.74)

    (0)

  • A-A-M: "
    SimpleSiren: "Thats why i say israel doesnt need us help to take out Iran. They have all the power they need. Hezbollah has been fighting an army with big huge international inflateble boxing gloves on. With Iran those would come off."
    Where do you think they have got all their "power what they need" man?
    They need US help all the time, allways needed and will allways need.
    And when they start this war, they need every fucking day US supplies, so i think that More..
    your right dude i dont think isreal has a chance against the arab states. they would get shamiled :)

    Posted Jan-21-2008 By 
    trancefreak64 (33.14)

    (0)