The Failure of the Shavit booster on 22 January, with the loss of the Ofeq 4 spy satellite, was the second of five Israeli launches which has failed to put a satellite into orbit.
The three-stage booster, based on the two-stage Jericho 2 missile, was first flown in 1988 from Palmachin air base, near Tel Aviv, carrying the Ofeq 1 test satellite. The Ofeq 2 followed in April 1990, but a launch failure between then and the launch of the Ofeq 3 in April 1995 (although not confirmed by Israel) is well known in military circles, says the Molniya Space Consultancy in London.
Video footage of the latest launch reveals a suspected malfunction at about the time of the switch from the first to the second stage.
The Ofeq 4 was to have followed the Ofeq 3 as an operational spy satellite equipped with El-Op 2m high-resolution remote-sensing cam- eras, to monitor activities - particularly in Iraq and Iran.
The Shavit, equipped with a liquid upper stage and stretched first, second and third stages, and renamed the Next, is being marketed by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) for commercial launches of 400kg payloads to low-Earth orbit. It could also form the basis of Israel's next-generation Jericho 3 missile.
IAI has also entered an agreement with Coleman Industries of Orlando, Florida, to market the Shavit jointly.
Source: Flight International
