IAI Ofeq-2

Ofeq-2, first named Oz-2, was the second Israeli satellite and a close copy of Ofeq-1. It was built by Israel Aircraft Industries, now Israel Aerospace Industries, together with MBT for the Israel Space Agency, and launched on 3 April 1990 on a Shavit rocket from Palmachim Air Force Base into a low, elongated retrograde orbit of about 209 by 1,577 km at 143.2 degrees inclination. After reaching orbit it carried out communications experiments, and it fell into the atmosphere and burned up on 9 July 1990. The catalogues give its mass as 160 kg, slightly more than Ofeq-1's 157 kg. Together with Ofeq-1 it forms the technology-demonstration phase of the Ofeq programme that came before the reconnaissance satellites of the later series.