- "From the moment the State of Israel has the capability
to launch a satellite into orbit around the earth at a height of hundreds
of kilometers, it established [its] capability to launch, by means of a
missile, a payload to any location on the face of the earth," says
the head of the Asher Institute at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology,
Prof. Moshe Gelman, in the wake of the launch of the Ofek 5 satellite.
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- Avi Har-Even, the director-general of the Israel Space
Agency (ISA), explained to Ha'aretz that the Ofek 5 launch has two strategic
aspects. The first, he says, is the ability to monitor activities in hostile
states without violating international treaties. The second involves Israel's
launch capabilities.
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- Since the launch of Ofek 1, Western media have published
reports on Israel's ability to send warheads to targets located at a distance
of thousands of kilometers. According to foreign reports, the Shavit is
an offshoot of the Jericho surface-to-surface missile.
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- The rocket is manufactured at the Israel Aircraft Industries
Malam plant, though its two initial stages (the engines) are manufactured
by Israel Military Industries' Givon factory.
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- In a ceremony to honor employees at Givon following the
successful launch of Ofek 5, the managing director of the factory, Natan
Wechsler, said that in contrast to what was done with all the rocket's
subsystems and telescopic cameras, no preliminary tests were carried out
on the rocket's engines due to financial constraints.
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- Prof. Gelman, who headed the team that developed the
Technion's scientific satellite, TechSat, which was sent into space by
a Russian rocket, told Ha'aretz that any third-year student in the Aeronautics
and Space Faculty could make the calculation to determine the range of
a ballistic missile.
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- To send a satellite into orbit around the earth at a
height of more than 400 kilometers, the rocket must reach a certain velocity
at which the laws of nature take over, ensuring that it keeps a constant
speed. From that point onward, the satellite fixes itself onto a path determined
by Kepler's Laws, such as the fixed orbital path of the moon around the
earth.
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- According to Prof. Gelman, there is no difference between
the path of a ballistic missile and a rocket used to launch a satellite
into orbit. The only difference is the target. A rocket leaves the atmosphere
and continues to orbit the earth while a ballistic surface-to-surface missile
leaves the atmosphere and returns to earth. The energy required not to
return to earth and to continue orbiting the planet is greater than that
required to produce a missile that returns to earth.
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- Prof. Gelman notes that in 1957, when the Russians launched
the first satellite, Sputnik 1, into space, the United States was frantic,
not because it was lagging behind in the race to conquer space, but because
the White House and Pentagon realized the USSR had the ability to launch
warheads at any location in America or any point on the face of the planet.
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- ISA chief Har-Even said the satellite Ofek 1, which was
launched in 1988, weighed about 180 kilograms, while the Ofek 5 weighs
some 300 kilos. Scientists around the world have been impressed that the
Shavit launcher goes into space heading in a westward direction, against
the direction of the earth's rotation, which attests to its powerful engines.
Har-Even says that capabilities demonstrated by the Shavit when it carried
the Ofek 1 remain in effect today, even though it carries a much heavier
satellite.
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- The ISA chief says the U.S. and Russia intend to develop
bombs that will travel on satellites in space, and which will be brought
down to earth by various control stations. However, Har-Even says, for
the time being such weapons belong to the realm of science fiction, and
are banned by international conventions. In order to land an orbiting object
at a chosen spot on the planet, it must be enveloped in heat resistant
materials to prevent it from burning up when it enters the atmosphere.
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- Several experts have guessed that the "Jericho 2"
is basically a missile that combines the Shavit's two stages. NASA scientists
estimated after the launching of the Ofek 1 that the Shavit, carrying a
nuclear warhead, would have a range of at least 5,300 kilometers, should
it be launched as a ballistic missile.
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- Experts in the Pentagon believe a Shavit can reach a
range of 7,200 kilometers when carrying a warhead of unspecified weight.
Prof. Steve Fetter, a physicist at the University of Maryland's School
of Public Affairs, calculates that a Shavit used as a ballistic missile
could convey a 775 kilogram warhead a distance of 4,000 kilometers.
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- http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jht
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