NASA To Launch Israel’s First Telescope

US Space Agency, NASA is all set to launch Israel's very first telescope mission. The Ultraviolet Transient Astronomy Satellite (ULTRASAT) will be launched into a geostationary orbit in early 2026, according to a media report on Wednesday.

Commenting on the partnership, Mark Clampin, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington said, the collaboration is an international effort that is likely to help understand the mysteries of the hot, transient universe.

He said ULTRASAT will facilitate the global science community and will give them an important capability for making new observations in the nascent field of time domain and multi-messenger, astrophysics programs.

ULTRASAT is an ultraviolet observatory with a large field of view, aimed to observe short-duration space events like supernovas and the merger of neutron stars. It quickly discovers and captures ultraviolet light from such sources.

Uri Oron, director of the Israel Space Agency in the Ministry of Innovation, Science, and Technology tagged the telescope as the ground-breaking science calls for cutting-edge technology.

He emphasised, ULTRASAT fulfills our requirements such as a wide field of view, advanced ultraviolet sensitivity, and real-time data control and transfer. The main forefront of technological developments.

The Israel Space Agency is proud of its cooperation with NASA direct, as the partnership will help the country to showcase its capabilities.

Meanwhile, as per the agreement between NASA and Israel Space Agency, the former will provide launch service, Flight Payload Adapter and other launch-related services for ULTRASAT.