Occupied Jerusalem: Israel has launched its latest military spy satellite, boosting its intelligence-gathering capabilities in the face of Iran's nuclear programme, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday.
The Ofek 9 was blasted into orbit by an Israeli-made rocket on Tuesday from the Palmachim air base south of Tel Aviv, joining three other Israeli spy satellites in space.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio: "Israel's boosting of its intelligence capabilities is directed ... to a large extent towards the threat posed by Iran, first and foremost the nuclear threat."
Brigadier-General Nimrod Sheffer, deputy chief of the air force, said preliminary data had been received from Ofek 9 and it would transmit its first picture within days.
Along with the West, Israel believes Iran's uranium enrichment activities are aimed at producing nuclear weapons, an allegation Tehran denies.
