An Israeli military satellite fell into the Mediterranean Sea on Monday after a botched launched from southern Israel, military officials said.
The Defence Ministry said that ”an unsuccessful attempt was made to launch into orbit a remote sensing satellite”.
Analysts said the satellite was designed to help expand Israel’s coverage of its more distant enemies, particularly Iran. The failure of the launch is seen as a major setback for the military.
The Ofek-6 satellite fell into the sea near the city of Ashdod soon after it was launched at the Palmachim beach. No injuries were reported, military officials said.
The satellite failed to gain orbit after boosters on the satellite apparently malfunctioned, said Isaac Ben-Israel, head of the security studies programme at Tel Aviv University, who attended the launch. The two-stage Shavit rocket launcher functioned properly and was not the cause of the failure, Ben-Israel said.
Israel has launched several satellites, including the Amos 1 television satellite in 1996 and the Ofek 5 in 2002.
”Ofek” means horizon in Hebrew. — Sapa-AP