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Egozi: Government is Destroying Israel’s Space Industry

Mar 26, 2018

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There are some State capabilities that should be protected at any price. The satellite industry is one of them. And here – time after time, the government does nothing to preserve these capabilities based on years of experience, which have already yielded very impressive achievements.

Spacecom announced that it has chosen, for the second time in a row, a foreign company to construct for it a communication satellite. The company reported on March 25 about its decision to take the American company Loral to construct the Amos 8 communication satellite on its behalf.

The $112 million agreement includes the purchase of the satellite and its systems, a ground control system for its operation, launch support services, lifelong satellite operation support.

The deal with the American company is a serious setback mainly to the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), that had submitted an offer for the satellite construction.

In Spacecom sources say that there was a great willingness to help IAI, however, the company which is a commercial one had to chose what is good for its shareholders..

It is, in fact, a twofold setback. An additional satellite, the Amos 17, is currently under construction by the American company Boeing within the framework of a $160 million deal. The choice of Boeing was explained by the American company’s capability of constructing the satellite within a tight schedule. The satellite name reflects its future geostationary position in space, E17.

There is not a minimal understanding of the problem In a government that includes a science and technology minister. “There are ministres with meaningless titles and a lack of understanding regarding the national problems,” said a defense official.

It is important to note that Israel has been using the Amos series communication satellites also for security purposes. “Preserving these capabilities within Israel is a prior interest of the State,” said the defense official.

In the ranks of the defense establishment, it is claimed that the Amos 8 deal is an example of the government’s complete lack of understanding of the need to preserve Israel’s space capabilities.

So far, IAI has constructed four satellites for Spacecom, with a total investment of more than 2 billion NIS.

The last satellite constructed by the company was the Amos 6. This satellite was destroyed in September 2016 at the launching pad, just before its launch. It was claimed that the fault was the responsibility of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, chosen to launch the satellite into space.