Israeli first communications satellite, the Amos-1, has been launched successfully aboard a European Ariane rocket from French Guiana in northeastern South America.
The rocket, which also carried an Indonesian satellite, lifted off into a cloudy night sky Thursday from the European Space Agency center in Kourou, French Guiana.
Twenty minutes after liftoff, the Indonesian satellite was released into space; four minutes later, the rocket released the Amos-1. After the Israeli satellite becomes operational in four to six weeks, Israel will be among a group of only seven other nations that operate communications satellites.
The one-ton Amos-1 was developed and produced by Israel Aircraft Industries, with Deutsche Aerospace of Germany and Alcatel of France serving as major subcontractors.
Designed to operate in a geostationary orbit for more than 10 years, Amos- 1 will provide services for cable television, telephone, cellular phone and on- line data links.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
