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Last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Daniel Hershkowitz , Israel s minister of science and technology, to talk about hiscountry s capabilities and ambitions in space. We spoke aboutIsrael s homegrown platforms for launching satellites into space;the commercial, military and scientific applications of thosesatellites; and whether the country has plans to return to thehuman spaceflight arena, almost 10 years after its first foray ended in tragedy. The Israeli space program is a minuscule operation compared to NASAor the European Space Agency not surprising for a nation withabout the land area and population of New Jersey. The IsraeliSpace Agency does not have its own industries, Hershkowitz says. It s just a very small body that coordinates in the activitiesof the other industries, and also coordinates between the civilianand the military applications. To do that, he says, the agencyhas an annual budget of about $50 million. Israel s presence inspace is defined primarily by a network of Earth observation,communication and reconnaissance satellites. But Hershkowitz notesthat his nation takes the overall enterprise of scientific researchquite seriously. Israel leads the world in terms of percentage of GDP spent on research and development , and he notes that by some criteria its space program is fairlyadvanced: In fact, nowadays Israel belongs to the very exclusive club ofabout 10 countries in the world that have all capabilities inspace. When we say all, I mean producing satellites, both the busand the payload, launching them and communicating with them. Thereare only about 10 such states in the world, and Israel belongs tothat exclusive club. Hershkowitz cited Israel s special needs namely itslong-running tensions with neighboring countries as necessitatingits self-reliance in space. And he did not shy away from theclosely entwined military and civilian history of Israel s spaceprogram: As in most countries of the world that have space programs, thingsstarted from the military. Mainly observation satellites. The focus on surveillance continues today. Israel is certainly notalone in accessing the ultimate high ground for observationpurposes, nor in entangling its defense needs with its peacefulaims. NASA s space shuttles ferried 10 or so secret Department of Defense payloads to orbit during the1980s and 1990s, even as the shuttles carried out otherunclassified missions for scientific aims. The same goes for Israeltoday, where eyes in the sky can serve multiple purposes.Hershkowitz estimates that close to half of what we investnowadays in space has to do with scientific applications andcivilian applications, such as monitoring water pollution andsoil conditions for agriculture. But he acknowledges that MiddleEast turmoil will ensure that reconnaissance remains a toppriority: I think that Israel will continue to be in a leading position inobservation satellites, and that s because of our strategic needs.With observation satellites, of course I would focus on the TecSARsatellites, which are based on radar. This is today thecutting-edge technology; Israel is very much in a leading position.Some of the abilities are still even secret, because you don twant to reveal the ability of what you can see through. Earth satellites are crucial to just about any space-faring nation,but what about more ambitious explorations? Specifically, what ofhuman spaceflight? Israel fielded its first astronaut, Israeli AirForce colonel Ilan Ramon, in 1997. But Ramon s first mission endedin disaster when space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas in 2003, killing all seven crewmembers onboard. According to Hershkowitz, Israel has no immediate plans torecruit a second astronaut: Usually the public is very fascinated by human missions, and byastronauts. But you know, one of the reasons that the United Stateshas decided to abandon its human programs and does not use theshuttles anymore, and as I said, when they have to send astronautsto the International Space Station they use Russian shuttles, thereason is that I would say scientifically and even technologically,manned missions have ceased to be interesting. Besides of coursethe myth, and there is some fascination and attraction about it,but they really limit the mission. Because a human being is ofcourse limited by certain things, and it really limits the missionin terms of distance, in terms of duration of mission. Of course, you know, it s nice to have an astronaut, but it reallydoesn t help the strategic needs of the state of Israel. It ispossible that in a certain stage we will have another Israeliastronaut but we don t have right now much interest in that. Wehave other priorities. Amid all the talk of strategic needs and the fraught politicaltensions and conflicts in the Middle East, I was curious to know ifHershkowitz views Israel as a participant in a space race withIran, or with any other country in the region. Even though Iran hasin recent years joined the club of space-faring nations with thelaunch of a homegrown satellite, Hershkowitz says he does not see arace unfolding: I don t see a space race, because after all space is not aplatform for weapons. It s a platform for information. Now, weknow that the way we collect information on our enemies, ourenemies also try to do that and collect information. I wouldn tsay that there is a race, but there is a big gap, a huge gap,between the abilities of Israel and its neighbors. In fact, exceptfor Iran, none of our neighboring countries have real spaceabilities. Sometimes they buy services from others, but it sreally not the same. Iran may be a relative newcomer to the spaceflight club, but it isa long-standing member of the United Nations Committee on thePeaceful Uses of Outer Space. That committee, which works on issuesof international cooperation in space, has a large and diverse membership of 71 countries a collection from which Israel is notably absent.So I asked if Israel has a desire to join its space-faring peers bysigning on to the committee. His reply: In principle the answer is yes. My ministry is not the one that isinvolved in that, that is definitely the Ministry of ForeignAffairs, but the answer is positive. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Thermal Transfer Overprinter Manufacturer , Inline Printers Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Hot Coding Foil today!
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