Civilian space program in crisis, Shapira declares
Israel’s civilian space program is in crisis due to underfunding and the outsourcing of key communication satellite functions to foreign companies, State Comptroller Joseph Shapira said on Monday in his annual report.
According to Shapira, as of July, the government has only provided the space agency with a fraction of the tens of millions in additional funding that its own commission recommended.
Even more worrying, said the report, is the idea that continued outsourcing of communications satellites to foreign companies could hamper the country’s ability to maintain an independent launch capability for a critical national security issue.
In contrast, if Israel were to properly fund and continue to develop its own satellite capabilities, there would be payoffs not only in the national security arena, but also in the areas of business, communications, science and technology and regarding Israel’s global standing.
Israel’s civilian space program was established in 1983, and in the 1990s it launched four Amos-model satellites into space.
However, as of 2008, the agency was in crisis for lack of funding and long-term planning.
A 2009 government commission recommended an increased budget of tens of millions in funding.
According to the report, there has been only a small funding increase, which has forced the space agency to outsource many critical issues.
Further, in September 2016, Amos 6 was destroyed in a failed launch.
Amos 6 was supposed to replace Amos 2. Without a replacement and with only Amos 3 and 4 in operation, the report said that the agency decided in June 2017 to lease long-term the use of foreign company A’s satellite to replace Amos 6.
Continuing this trend, in March, the agency executed a long-term lease for the foreign company Space System Loral LLC to replace what would have been Amos 7.
The comptroller criticized the government for failing to move forward with Israel Aerospace Industries for designing further satellites instead of being dependent on leasing foreign companies’ satellites.
In view of the severity of the situation, Shapira sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a formal letter in April warning of the long-term national security consequences.
Curiously, the comptroller did not mention that in May, the government canceled the deal with Loral LLC and authorized subsidizing IAI’s efforts to develop Amos 8 at the costs of tens of millions of additional dollars.
There is some political controversy about whether this last-minute decision related to threats from IAI workers was to deflect from the Likud.
Part of the omission may have been that the comptroller did not accept the pursuit of launching Amos 8 as sufficient.
Rather, the report said that the new plan lacked any detail, deadlines or benchmarks, lacked plans for what would come after Amos 8 and was missing a broader strategic concept for the space agency’s future.
In addition, the report highlighted the failure of the Science and Technology Ministry to update the terms of the space agency’s license since 2000, despite the many changes that have occurred in the field.
Regarding interactions between the civilian space agency and the security establishment, the report found two deficiencies.
One issue is that the security establishment has not resolved issues relating to agency staff’s security clearances.
A second issue is that despite a state decision that a defense establishment observer should serve on the space agency’s board of directors, no observer has been appointed.
Against the background of the debate over Israel’s fledgling civilian space agency is the fact that the Defense Ministry and the IDF operate a separate program, including a wide range of satellites to directly serve military needs.
The comptroller did not respond for a request for comment as to how the military space program worked into the broader picture and its criticism.
The Science and Technology Ministry said that while it respected the report’s conclusions, it was outdated, as most of its recommendations had moved forward with cabinet approval.
Specifically, the ministry referred to moving forward with the Amos 8 satellite and to developing a long-term strategy within only three months at the direction of Ofir Akunis.