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Israel launches "eye in the sky" over Iran

By Ori Lewis


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel successfully launched on Tuesday a highly accurate imaging satellite which will enhance its ability to spy on Iran, an official said.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said this week that the nuclear program being pursued by arch-foe Iran was the most serious threat faced by Jews since the Nazi Holocaust.

"The launching of the satellite was successful," an official with the manufacturer ImageSat International said.

Shimon Eckhaus, the firm's chief executive, told Reuters earlier on Tuesday: "The capabilities of the satellite speak for themselves. I do not need to say anything about what the purpose of its use might be."

A report in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth said the Eros B satellite has a camera which can decipher objects on the ground as small as 70 centimeters (about two feet) across.

Eckhaus confirmed the accuracy of the published details to Reuters.

The report said Eros B will join an earlier version of the satellite, launched in December 2000. Both are set to augment the work of Israel's declared spy satellite, Ofek 5, which regularly passes over Arab territory.

The Yedioth report said that Israel was planning to send up another spy satellite with the ability to view objects in all weather conditions and in darkness. The Eros satellites are effective only in daylight and in clear visibility.
The launch comes at a time of heightened tension over Iran's nuclear program.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear bombs and has refused to rule out military options if diplomacy fails to curb the Islamic Republic's atomic ambitions. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity.

LAUNCHED FROM RUSSIA

Like its predecessor in 2000, Eros B was launched from the Svobodny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East later on Tuesday using a Russian Start-1 rocket.

It will orbit the Earth at a height of about 500 km (310 miles) and will circle the globe roughly every 95 minutes, ImageSat said.

The Eros satellites, which weigh under 350kg (770 lb), are among a number of small, lightweight satellites which Israel's space industry has perfected, Eckhaus said.

Because of the country's geographical location and small size, the space industry generally favors smaller payloads that can more easily be launched from Israeli territory.

"The fact that we are launching the satellite in Russia means that we can do so with the Earth's rotation and makes it more effective and gives it a longer life span," Eckhaus said.

Israel is only able to launch small satellites westwards over the Mediterranean Sea -- opposite to the Earth's rotation -- because it cannot risk rockets flying over its Arab neighbors to the east or debris falling on their territory.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

If you people wish to continue surfing the net and making vaccuous comments like the ones you are predisposed to do, you should be hoping we start the nuking sooner rather than later.

Despite your best efforts, your incredible ignorance of the underlying realities and histories involved shines through like even the most poorly veiled black bossom under the pulse of a properly synchronized flash from a speed light and reveals one of the most amazing disconnects in modern intelligent mankind.

NEWSFLASH:


The energy used to bring you this latest drkodos vaccuity is provided by the burning of fossil fuels.





Deliver lethal dosages of radiation to a Islamfascist or fundamentalist today so that we may surf tomorrow!!












Hey listen: That or allow your version of the ANTI-Christ, Georgie-Porgie, to open up oil fields in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico and other US strategic reserve spots.


Who said it better than those seminal philosophers of metaphysics, The Butthole Surfers

Surf, or Die.



Click here to support them and their art:


I have and that is why I take this opportunity to deliver unto you this message and hope you can vote as well with your dollars and support them. They are good dudes. Really, they are. And I bet they are very happy that I am using this forum to remind you who the fuck they are to begin with or possibly even bring them to some people's attention for the very first time.


I'm not sure myself, but I am open to discussion on the issues.




Your turn.

I'm surfing, on heroin.

You may have just convinced me that we will be at war wih Iran shortly!

This is one situation where I wish my concerns hadn't turned out to be valid.

As the Chinese would say, we're living in "interesting times."