Israel received its first images from the Ofek 19 satellite on Sunday, the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) reported.
The images came approximately two weeks after the satellite’s launch on September 2, which was conducted in a joint operation by the Defense Ministry, the IDF, and IAI using a “Shavit” satellite launcher from a test site in central Israel.
On Sunday, engineering teams from the IAI Space Directorate, the Ministry of Defense, and Unit 9900 of Military Intelligence activated the satellite’s advanced radar for the first time, IAI noted.
The satellite transmitted the images to IAI’s control station in Yehud.
Ofek 19 is part of the Ofek satellite series, Israel’s military spy and intelligence-gathering satellite program.
Ofek 19 is an advanced synthetic aperture radar reconnaissance satellite designed to provide high-resolution imaging capabilities under all weather conditions for intelligence and surveillance purposes. After entering orbit around Earth, the satellite underwent a series of tests to verify its performance and operational readiness.
Israel’s satellite program has been active since 1988, with the previous model, Ofek 13, launching in March 2023.
The Ofek 13 satellite successfully captured images of tens of millions of square kilometers of Iranian territory, enabling new levels of immediate battle damage assessments that facilitated the analysis of strike effectiveness.