IAI Ofeq

Ofeq, meaning horizon, is the series of Israeli satellites built by Israel Aircraft Industries and launched for the Israeli Space Agency, with the later models serving the Israeli military. The first two, Ofeq-1 and Ofeq-2, were technology demonstration satellites launched from Palmachim on 19 September 1988 and 3 April 1990, and between them they tested solar power generation, transmission and reception from space, the ability to withstand vacuum and weightlessness, and the space environment and the Earth's magnetic field. Ofeq 3, launched in 1995, was Israel's second-generation optical imaging reconnaissance satellite, and Ofeq-5 of 2002 was said to be about a third heavier than its predecessors. The Shavit rocket carried them, and the launches of January 1998 and September 2004 failed, the second destroying Ofeq-6. Ofeq-7 reached orbit in June 2007 and Ofeq 9 in June 2010.