Following the launch of the Israeli satellite “Dror 1” into space on Sunday, the CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries, Boaz Levy, spoke with Liat Ron on the program “Where’s the Money” on Radio 103FM, and could not hide his excitement over the impressive event, which sparked immense pride in Israel.
During the conversation, Levy told Ron: “Congratulations to the State of Israel, which now has a new national satellite. It’s a national satellite meant to serve the country’s needs. Until now, we didn’t have a national satellite. We used other satellites. As time goes by and dependence on information increases, the need for a communication satellite grows.”
He later explained that “Dror was launched from the U.S. We launch two types of satellites: Observation satellites and communication satellites. There’s a fundamental difference between them — an observation satellite weighs about 500 kilograms. It orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 500 kilometers, and each orbit takes about an hour and a half. A communication satellite, in our case, weighs around 4.5 tons and travels to a point in the sky located 36,000 kilometers from Earth, where it orbits in sync with the Earth. This requires a tremendous amount of energy, which only a very large rocket can provide.”
He then emphasized, “It’s important to understand that this is a satellite entirely developed in Israel. Including its development, the project cost around $200M — a very reasonable amount for this kind of satellite.”
So what can the satellite actually do? “Dror is a communication satellite. It can transmit communication from Israel outward and receive communication from outside into Israel. When we have such a satellite, we can deliver our communication — independent of anything else — to anywhere,” Levy explained.
During the conversation, he also addressed the lessons learned by Israel Aerospace Industries from the recent war: “The Rising Lion Operation set a new standard. In this war, massive ballistic missile attacks were carried out — nearly 540 missiles were launched at Israel. There were defense systems that did the required job. There was extensive communication that enabled our aircraft to reach very far, and of course, all the systems involved in the strikes.”
“What’s interesting about this war,” he added, “is that all the systems operated in full cooperation. Today, when we look back, we evaluate the systems’ performance, but beyond that, we’re investing the necessary time to add the capabilities required in the short term, to replenish stockpiles, and on the other hand, we’re investing significant internal and external resources to develop the next generations of systems that will be able to respond to future battlefields as well,” he concluded.