Israeli satellite launch fails

An Israeli satellite that malfunctioned after launch on Thursday and burned up was meant to spy on Iran, Iraq, and Syria, Israeli media reported yesterday.

Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper quoted a defense source as saying the loss of the Ofek 4, launched in a cloak of secrecy from a military site in central Israel, had cost the country $50 million US.

It was the second hi-tech failure for Israel's defense establishment in less than six months following an aborted test last August of the country's Arrow 2 anti-missile missile.

Security sources said the satellite, manufactured by the state-owned Israeli Aircraft Industries, malfunctioned and failed to achieve orbit.

The Ofek 4 was meant to replace Israeli's first operational reconnaissance satellite, the Ofek 3, which has been in space for more than two years and is now reaching the end of its life.

Ma'ariv and Israel radio said both satellites had been built to spy on Iraq, Iran and Syria but that unlike its predecessor, the Ofek 4 had been designed to relay all-weather photographic intelligence back to Israeli in real time.