**India to launch Israeli satellite **
**Srinivas Laxman | TNN
**
Mumbai: India will launch a foreign satellite with a “top secret” payload in September. Although officials at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) are tightlipped about the nature of the hush-hush mission, information obtained from other sources by TOI suggests that Isro’s proven four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry an Israeli spy satellite called TechSar, weighing about 260 kg. The lift-off will be from the space centre at Sriharikota, a short drive from Chennai.
The launch will mark a crucial milestone in growing Indo-Israeli military ties and there’s a likelihood that some of the secret images taken by TechSar will be made available to India.
Developed by the Israeli aircraft industry, it will be Tel Aviv’s first satellite with what is known as a synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This will allow the satellite to see objects below which are extremely tiny. SAR is used by moving instruments like satellites over immobile targets and has wide applications in the critical area of remote sensing.
While Isro officials confirmed to TOI the flight, they, however, maintained it was absolutely classified at this stage. All they would say was that it would be a “dedicated commercial launch for a foreign customer”.
The launch is expected to cost around $15 million. In contrast, if Israel had used its own Shavit rocket for launching its satellite, the price would have gone up to to about $20 million, according to space experts here.
Experts say that Israel opted for the Indian PSLV for two reasons: l It displays Israel’s confidence in the Indian rocket over its own Shavit rocket, which has run into several operational problems over the years. The Israel-made rocket failed in September 2004, destroying an Israeli defence ministry’s satellite called Ofeq-6 costing $100 million.
l The Israeli defence ministry has laid down new orbital requirements for TechSar which Shavit could not provide. The new requirements are aimed giving TechSar a wider coverage area.