Re: Westbound Satellite?

elmo wrote:
 
> Excuse me for being stupid, but what are the "OBVIOUS" reasons for this???

First, there's the political situation--almost any other direction will
have an Israeli rocket overfly a Muslim nation right after launch.  Most 
of them aren't fond of Israel, and they might see a launch as a 
pre-emptive attack.

Politics aside, almost any direction but west will put a rocket over 
inhabited territory; that's a dangerous situation.  A western launch
puts the vehicle over the Mediterranean, which is a safer place to
crash.
Mark Wade's Space Encyclopedia (at http://www.astronautix.com )
says that launches from the Palmachim site south of Tel Aviv are 
restricted to launches between an azimuth of 142 and 144 degrees.

I originally wrote:

> > >The Israelis have also launched several satellites, which for
> > >obvious reasons have to head west.  However none of these
> > >"Ofeq" are currently in orbit.
>
> > Actually there is one:

> > OFEQ 5           2.3  1.2  0.0  7.0 d  2.2
> > 1 27434U 02025A   03258.45293357  .00018465  00000-0  47577-3 0  5763
> > 2 27434 143.4432 231.6162 0130040 134.6088 226.5094 15.28626704 72134

My (belated) thanks to Don Gardner for pointing this out.

--Bill Thompson