Closer Space Ties Between Two Nations

Israel will soon put a $15 million telescope into space and it won't ride atop an American-built rocket or space shuttle.

It won't take flight on a Russian vehicle, nor will it be launched by the European Space Agency.

Instead, the Electro Optics Industrial telescope will ride into orbit atop a rocket made in and launched from... India.

Israel's Minister of Science and Technology, Eliezer Sandberg, is headed for Bangalore Sunday to make the deal official.

The space telescope will launch late next month or early the month after. It will ride into space along with India's G-Sat 4 communications satellite, on a "new frontiers" mapping mission to image the Ultra Violet (UV) sky.

The Hindustan Times quotes unidentified officials who say the data acquired by the Israeli telescope "would solve some pressing astrophysical questions, including star formation history of galaxies and the physics of giant black holes and could steer the Hubble Space Telescope to selected interesting objects followed up in detail with a larger space facility."

The launch deal is the culmination of two years' negotiation between India and Israel. It's seen as a first step toward strengthening the aerospace ties between the two nations.

FMI: www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH07sj0