Ofeq-7, (also known as Ofek 7 or Offek-7), is part of the

Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek ( he, אופק, ''lit.'' Horizon) is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. Most Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit 2 launch vehicles from Palma ...

family of

Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...

s designed and built by

Israel Aerospace Industries Israel Aerospace Industries (Hebrew: התעשייה האווירית לישראל ''ha-ta'asiya ha-avirit le-yisra'el'') or IAI (תע"א) is Israel's major aerospace and aviation manufacturer, producing aerial and astronautic systems for both mi ...

(IAI) for the

Israel Ministry of Defense The Ministry of Defense ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַבִּטָּחוֹן, Misrad HaBitahon, Ministry of Security, acronym: he, משהב"ט) of the government of Israel, is the governmental department responsible for defending the State of Isra ...

Launch

The Ofeq-7 was launched by a

Shavit 2 Shavit 2 (Hebrew: "comet" – שביט) is a small lift launch vehicle produced by Israel from 1982 onwards, to launch satellites into low Earth orbit. It was first launched on 19 September 1988 (carrying an Ofek-1 satellite payload), makin ...

space launch vehicle on 10 June 2007 at 23:40 UTC. Equipped with advanced technology and a series of new enhancements to provide improved imagery, it is placed into an

elliptical orbit In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics, an elliptic orbit or elliptical orbit is a Kepler orbit with an eccentricity of less than 1; this includes the special case of a circular orbit, with eccentricity equal to 0. In a stricter sense, it ...

of .

Mission

Three days after its launch, on 13 June 2007, IAI MBT Space Division received the first images taken by the satellite. The Ofeq-7 is a follow-on spacecraft to Ofeq-5 that was placed into orbit in 2002.

References

Reconnaissance satellites of Israel Spacecraft launched in 2007 Spacecraft launched by Shavit rockets 2007 in Israel IAI satellites {{spacecraft-stub