Pop sensation Katy Perry is ready for her departure into space, Mirror reports. The 40-year-old recording artist will soar skyward from Texas aboard a Blue Origin vessel alongside five accomplished women, constituting the first exclusively female crew to venture beyond Earth's atmosphere in over six decades. According to Mirror, the autonomous, recyclable spacecraft is scheduled for departure at 2:30 p.m. local time on Monday.

Her companions include author Lauren Sanchez, 55, who is also currently engaged to billionaire Jeff Bezos; television personality Gayle King, 70; civil rights champion Amanda Nguyen, 33; aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, 38; and cinema director Kerianne Flynn, 57, as detailed by the publication.

Katy Perry goes to Space today. pic.twitter.com/St0n9A6RYl

— Pop Base (@PopBase) April 14, 2025

This momentous expedition represents the first women-only space crew since Soviet engineer Valentina Tereshkova conducted her unaccompanied journey in 1963, Mirror explains. The assemblage will ascend 62 miles above our planet's surface, formally entering space when their vessel traverses the Karman boundary, which serves as the recognized frontier between Earth's atmospheric envelope and cosmic territory.

Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos' fiance Lauren Sanchez and an all-female crew are headed to space on the Blue Origin rocket aka the Sexualized Spaceship - for 11 minutes.

Dubbed the first all-female flight to space - but that actually already happened on June 16, 1963 by Russia's… pic.twitter.com/usIdifFe4G

— Denn Dunham (@DennD68) April 13, 2025

 The adventurers will undergo approximately four minutes of zero gravity conditions. This interval will enable them to float freely and observe terrestrial vistas through the expansive windows before their capsule commences its descent, deploying three parachutes to facilitate a secure return to Earth.

The Blue Origin rocket constitutes a fundamental element of billionaire Jeff Bezos' New Shepard space initiative. This program focuses on advancing commercial space travel through innovative, reusable rocket technology.

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Researchers propose that Mercury may have a 15-kilometer-thick diamond layer beneath its surface, which could significantly influence the planet's thermal and magnetic properties.

According to simulations and high-pressure experiments replicating Mercury's interior conditions, Mercury is believed to have a thick layer of diamonds hundreds of miles beneath its surface, formed during the planet's cooling magma ocean rich in carbon and silicates.

The proposed diamond layer's high thermal conductivity could impact Mercury's thermal dynamics and magnetic field generation, potentially explaining the planet's high carbon content, dark spots, and unusual magnetic field.

The formation of diamonds could influence heat transfer between the cores and mantles, creating currents in liquid iron to generate their magnetic fields.

Sources: Economic Times, Live Science, Nature, Diario Uno, NewsX, TechSpot, NDTV, Raport, Useit.ro, Kompas, Scenarieconomici, Detik, Cafef, Stiripesurse.md, Gossip Italiano, Biobiochile, Trust My Science, Cronista, Jurnalul, DNA India, NewsBytes

This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.

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China plans to launch an asteroid deflection and observation mission before 2030, targeting the near-Earth asteroid 2015 XF261 or 2019 VL5 with a diameter of about 30 meters.

The mission will involve an observer probe to analyze the asteroid for 3-6 months and an impactor probe to collide with it, deviating its flight path initially by a few inches to test planetary defense capabilities and study asteroid dynamics, evolution, and origins.

The spacecraft will carry payloads like spectral and Laser 3D detectors, cameras, radars, and analyzers for detailed asteroid study. Ground-based telescopes and space telescopes like Xuntian will also be used for follow-up observations.

NASA's DART mission successfully altered an asteroid's trajectory, proving the ability to change an asteroid's orbit as a planetary defense system. NASA is also developing the NEO Surveyor space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2028, to detect potentially threatening near-Earth objects.

China's asteroid mission is part of a wider planetary defense system plan, aiming to advance capabilities in protecting Earth against hazardous near-Earth objects (NEOs) while exploring primordial planetary objects.

China is also enhancing its observation of near-Earth objects through telescopes and radar systems, with proposals for additional asteroid-hunting systems to improve detection and monitoring of potential threats.

Sources: Science Times, The Planetary Society, Yahoo News, The Bharat Express News.

This article was written in collaboration with [Generative AI news company Alchemiq](www.alchemiq.ai).

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Astroscale's ADRAS-J satellite, launched by a Rocket Lab Electron rocket in February 2024, captured close-up images of a discarded 11-meter-long (36 feet) H-2A rocket upper stage that has been orbiting Earth for nearly 20 years as part of JAXA's CRD2 program, marking a world first.

Satellites in Earth's orbit are equipped with cameras that can capture images of space debris, including large pieces of abandoned rockets and other discarded objects, allowing companies like Astroscale to analyze their condition and plan for safe removal.

The ADRAS-J satellite used ground-based techniques and Model Matching Navigation to locate and estimate the distance to the target object, approaching within 50 meters on June 14 to capture images showcasing its condition and spin rate.

Space debris poses a hazard to satellites and human-crewed habitats. NASA estimates there are 6,000 tons of space junk in Earth's orbit, traveling at high speeds, caused by defunct satellites, rocket parts, and collisions, creating more debris.

Astroscale aims to remove space debris by executing safe approach maneuvers and gathering data, with plans for more controlled close approaches in the next phase of the CRD2 mission, potentially using robotic arms to capture and deorbit the debris.

Efforts to remove space debris have been ongoing for years, as the accumulation of space junk is a growing concern for space operations, and ADRAS-J is part of addressing this issue and setting a sustainable environment for future generations.

Orbital debris doesn't broadcast its location, so tracking is done on the ground and on the satellite for a safe approach maneuver, as space junk poses a significant threat due to its high speed and the potential for catastrophic collisions.

Astroscale is developing spacecraft to manage satellites in orbit, providing services like life extension and "end of life" services for commercial satellites, with the next phase of the CRD2 program planned for 2026 to actively deorbit the upper stage.

The company shared additional images captured by ADRAS-J on YouTube for public viewing, and at the end of the mission, ADRAS-J will transition to a safe orbit to avoid collisions with space junk.

Sources: Hackaday, TechCrunch, TweakTown, Digital Trends, Space.com, Brytfmonline, and PetaPixel.

This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.

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In a bold initiative aimed at combating global warming, Professor Yoram Rozen, head of the Asher Space Research Institute (ASRI) at the Technion and a professor in the Faculty of Physics and a team of academics and industry experts has formulated a daring plan to launch a massive foil sheet into space to act as a sunshade, deflecting a portion of the sun's rays and lowering the Earth's average temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius within a relatively short span of 18 months.

Q: From the outside, your idea sounds a bit presumptuous, Prof. Yoav Rosen: to send a shade into space that will cover part of the Earth to help deal with global warming and even lower the temperature here by a degree and a half. Tell me about your plan at the Technion.

"The idea is to send an enormous sunshade, covering an area of 2.5 million square kilometers (965,255 square miles) – roughly the size of Argentina – to a unique point between the Earth and the sun. It will unfurl between the sun and the Earth, blocking a portion of the sun's radiation and lowering the average temperature here on Earth by 1.5 degrees Celsius within a relatively short period of about a year and a half. Since we will not be able to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions entirely – and even if we do, we will still be left with the current high temperatures – we need to address the problem from the outside."

Q: It is commonly thought that since the beginning of the Industrial Age, the temperature on Earth has risen by about a degree and a half. So you're closing a gap of about 250 years in a year and a half.

Rozen acknowledges that lowering the Earth's temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius in just 18 months is an ambitious goal, given that global temperatures have risen by approximately the same amount over the course of 250 years since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. However, he asserts, "According to all our analyses, this will work. The current average temperature on Earth is around 15 degrees Celsius, and it would be preferable to be around 13.5 degrees."

The sunshade itself would be constructed from a material already used in space missions and turns out to be relatively accessible. "It's not all that different from the survival or shock blankets used by pilots, hikers, and marathon runners to keep warm after physical exertion. It's the same material as the survival blankets you can find at Decathlon for 34 shekels (around $10)," Rozen explains. "The material is the same material – but it's clear that when sending it into space, some changes are required, and everything becomes more expensive."

Q: You're talking about a shade the size of Argentina, Algeria, or Kazakhstan. How will the production work?

While acknowledging the enormity of the task, Rozen emphasizes that the production process would be modular, with the sunshade constructed in separate components that need not be connected in space but could operate adjacently to create the desired shade. "The production will be done in parts," he clarifies. "Even in space, the components don't have to be connected; they can be side by side to create the shade."

Q: Will the shade be noticeable on Earth in any way? Will we have a shadow in the middle of the day?

"We won't feel it, and there won't be a noticeable shadow. It's a bit like a fly casting a shadow on Earth from a kilometer up. But in practice, it will lower the temperature for us, and also block 2% of the radiation that reaches us, which is the goal. The shade will mainly affect the area within 1,600 km (994 miles) from the equator, which is the critical area that affects the entire planet."

Q: How did you come up with the idea in the first place?

"The idea for the sunshade project germinated a few years ago when an Israeli group of academics and industry experts convened to explore potential solutions to global warming. While initial suggestions included launching 250 million massive (2.5 acre) balloons to shade the Earth, the group quickly recognized the impracticality of such a vast number of balloons, which could potentially fall into the atmosphere."

"A few months later, while traveling back from a conference, the idea clicked – how to send the sunshade, to what point, and what materials to use," Rozen recounts. "The next day, I discovered that someone had proposed a similar concept 16 years earlier, which gave me confidence that I was on the right track. The difference is that all the previous papers on this were theoretical, while we're coming up with a structured implementation plan."

While acknowledging the project's astronomical cost – an estimated $30 trillion – Rozen and his team have decided to start small by sending a prototype sunshade the size of a classroom into space. "After we succeed with the small one, we can enlist the world's support for the larger project," he states.

Q: When will you be able to send the prototype into space?

"Within three to four years from the moment we have the money. Sending the prototype into space will cost about $15 million. Right now, our progress is slow because we don't have money to invest, and the expectation is that in the future, we'll be able to rely on outside companies to prepare the sail, computer, and other parts."

Solar storms, pressure, and darkness

Q: You emphasize that shading the Earth must be done from outside it, i.e., from space, and that shading from the Earth's surface won't work. Could you explain that a bit more?

"On a hot sunny day in Israel, you go into an air-conditioned building. Maybe it's more comfortable for you, but you haven't changed the temperature of the Earth. If a bus stop has a roof, it's a bit more comfortable underneath it, but it doesn't change the temperature of the Earth because the roof absorbs the heat. So the shading has to be done outside the atmosphere. You need to block the radiation from reaching in the first place."

Q: The point for positioning the shade is 1.5 million kilometers (932,057 miles) from here. Why exactly?

"It's a fantastic point because it's one of five fixed points in space that rotate with the entire system. It's the only one that interests us because positioning the shade at other points would likely cast a shadow on other stars, not just us. So we have to be at the first Lagrange point, which is the distance where the gravitational forces of the Earth and the Sun are in equilibrium."

Q: What will you do about the radiation pressure?

"The radiation pressure is not negligible and knocks the system out of balance, so we'll position the shade a bit farther 'to the right,' about 50,000 km (31,069 miles) towards the Sun, to restore the system to equilibrium. By the way, the new point is also unstable, meaning the shade could still lose balance and fall. So we'll need to make corrections, just like a person standing on one leg adjusts their stance to stay upright."

Q: is the significance of such corrections in space?

"In principle, you can put an engine and make minor corrections all the time, but an engine adds weight and complexity, both of which we want to avoid. So we will deploy a sail and move to one side, or close the sail and move to the other side. The movement and reorientation won't happen every few seconds or minutes, but every 100-200 days. This is a solution that isn't problematic for us. It seems that between these two points, we can move within a certain range and stay within the area without falling. The shade will be modular and made up of many such blankets, as mentioned, and more units will be regularly launched to join the larger system."

Q: How many such launches will you need?

"We're talking about 2.5 million tons. We can currently launch 100 tons, and each time we'll launch the maximum possible. We'll likely need thousands of launches. The travel time will also be relatively short. The James Webb Space Telescope was launched about two and a half years ago to the relevant point for us, and the travel time was a few weeks."

Q: Will there be annual routine maintenance for such a project?

"There's not really an option for maintenance. Any part that fails, meaning it's in the wrong orientation, will be replaced with another. The cost of replacement is marginal compared to the entire project."

Q: What about the Sun's heating affecting the shade negatively? Just a month ago, satellites detected strong solar storms.

"It's true that the Sun has its cycles, but broadly speaking –the Sun is cooling over the course of billions of years. In a few billion years, it's also expected to go out, and then we'll need to talk again and see what we're doing."

International interest

Q: I'm trying to think about what's more presumptuous: thinking it's possible to send such a shade into space, or raising the amount of money we're talking about – $30 trillion.

"Fortunately, I'm not dealing with raising the global amount. That depends on a lot of politics."

Q: The annual US budget is about $5 trillion. I assume this is a global interest, and every country will have to contribute its share.

"To be honest, I was sure that for such a project, with keywords like sustainability, global warming, and saving planet Earth, it would be very easy to raise money – but it turns out that's not exactly the case."

Q: What kind of reactions are you getting in academia and beyond about this idea?

"Everyone is excited about it," he affirms, "but some professional bodies are skeptical about the costs. Nevertheless, technology companies, countries, and prominent environmental activists have reached out to us and expressed great interest."

However, Rozen expresses surprise at the opposition from certain environmental circles, who fear that a solution to global warming might lead to complacency about pollution. "It's important for me to note that our solution, effective as it may be, needs to coexist with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions," he emphasizes.

Q: On the subject of opposition – how did October 7 affect your project?

"We had a major partner that left us on October 7. I'm talking about an academic institution from the United Arab Emirates, the National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC). They want to continue working on this project, but it's possible they were instructed to stop working with us. We visited them several times, they were our research partners and they also have a larger budget."

Q: Are you in any contact with them?

"No, they're not responding to us right now."

Q: Is there a chance they'll come back to the table?

"Yes, I'm optimistic. It's an academic institution supported by the government, and we had a great relationship that included weekly meetings that led to progress. We were supposed to visit them and present the project at the UN Climate Conference. But they told us not to come and that this project won't be in our pavilion. If the collaboration had continued, we could already be counting down to sending the prototype into space."

Q: What will happen if your plan to send this shade doesn't go through? Are there other solutions for lowering the Earth's temperature?

"Let's start from the premise that we agree the Earth's temperature is rising. As I see it, there are three branches to the solution: The first is to absorb carbon dioxide, CO2, back from the atmosphere or the oceans, thereby reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. This is possible, but we're talking about insane amounts of CO2 that we'd need to liquefy and store, and anything stored can always leak out. It's an option, but it's not without problems."

"The second solution, believe it or not – is painting everything white. The brighter an object is, the more light it reflects and doesn't absorb as heat. When you wear a black shirt you absorb more heat, while a white shirt will lower your temperature."

Q: That doesn't sound very realistic.

"Right. A sub-branch of that is to do it in space. That is, to create more clouds that reflect light and lower the temperature, but there's an extreme game with the weather here."

Q: What are the long-term risks if we don't send this shade? What could happen to the Earth over a few decades?

"I'm a physicist, not a climate scientist, but we're already witnessing more and more disasters and extreme events. If we don't address the problem, we'll see even more of them, with greater damage and a threat to our lives, within two or three decades. If we continue to allow the Earth's temperature to rise over a longer period, we could reach a point where no functioning humanity can solve its problems. It's hard to predict the future, but very negative changes could occur for humans, perhaps even irreversible ones."

Q: There are those talking about relocating humanity to another planet. Your shade solution sounds more realistic.

"If we can't live on Earth, we'll need to find another place. And relocating humanity to another planet – Mars, for example – is much more expensive than the $30 trillion we're talking about. Moreover, think about the extreme conditions on Mars: We'd have to live there in a biosphere because the radiation there is lethal and the temperature is extreme. We'd need spacesuits and a constant oxygen supply. But here, on Earth, we have great conditions, we just need to invest in solutions."

Q: It's sad, but we need a "climate October 7" for people to wake up.

"I have news for you – we're already in a 'climate October 7,' and we're not aware of it because the disaster is ongoing, not happening all at once. Fortunately, we're not annihilating 100 million people in one event, but it's happening gradually. Unfortunately, instead of focusing on a solution that will advance and improve our lives, humanity is invested in another global project that costs us much more – wars. It's so easy for us to spend money on wars, but when it comes to our future here, the expense becomes harder and more complicated. I'll never be able to understand that. We need to take action now, so we don't pay compound interest on our inaction."

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This was not the first time that a launch of Boeing's Starliner was canceled, as a previous attempt last month also faced problems. The Starliner program has faced consistent delays, running years behind the original schedule.

The Crew Flight Test mission is crucial for Boeing to compete with SpaceX's Crew Dragon in the commercial crew program for ISS transport, as the test mission has been delayed due to previous issues, including a valve problem and a helium leak. NASA is looking to Boeing's Starliner as a backup to SpaceX's Crew Dragon for crew transportation to the ISS.

The Starliner was expected to dock at the ISS on Sunday and return to Earth on June 10.

The astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, were safely extracted from the capsule.

Sources: The Washington Post, CBS, NBC, PBS, The Independent, CNN, Ars Technica

This article was written in collaboration with Generative AI news company Alchemiq.

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"Israel is working on space warfare capabilities," CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries Boaz Levy revealed in an interview with Israel Hayom on the occasion of the company's 70th anniversary.

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He said that the challenges developing around Israel, especially from Iran, are demanding, but that Israel currently possesses the ability to respond, and is busy with "always staying a step or two ahead."

The last few years have been very profitable for the aerospace industry in particular, and defense industries in general, as the outbreak of the Ukraine war created plenty of opportunities in the field. Western Europe is concerned about the possibility of a larger war, for the first time since World War II, which has led to a significant increase in defense budgets and the procurement of various weapons. According to Levy, the main lesson from the war is the need for integrated systems, so-called systems of systems.

"We can no longer look at individual systems, but one thorough system that gets a continuous picture from satellites in the sky, is based on artificial intelligence elements, which can process large amounts of information and knows how to synchronize defense and weapon systems."

Q: Let's break this down. What is the West mostly interested in now?

"First of all, in defense capabilities – from the way we detect the threat, i.e. different radars and satellites, to complex systems that do air defense such as the Arrow or Barak systems, which is both sea and land. With these systems, you can detect the threat with one radar, activate a battery in another place and release a missile from a third battery."

As part of the increased interest in defense systems, there have been intensive negotiations between the Israeli and German governments with regard to the procurement by Berlin of the Arrow 3 missile defense system at an estimated cost of three billion euros ($3.3 million). 

"We haven't signed yet," Levy said. "There is a triangle of decision makers here – in Germany, Israel, and the United States, because the Arrow system was developed in cooperation with the American Missile Defense Agency. The Arrow system is currently the leader in the world in intercepting ballistic missiles, and Arrow 3 allows interception deep in space, far beyond the atmosphere, so that any missile launched toward a threat area can be dealt with on several occasions.

"This is a system that was born out of an Israeli need to defend ourselves, and it partners with the Barak system – with missiles at ranges of 30, 70 and 150 kilometers, which allow the interception of various types of missiles, including ballistic ones, as well as airplanes, cruise missiles, and drones ".

These threats are relevant not only to Europe, given Russia's use of drones in Ukraine, but also to Israel, which is threatened by the same drones by Iran and its proxies in the region.

"We are in a ring of threat and constantly have to be one or two steps ahead of our enemies. We are constantly busy thinking ahead, which will allow us to stay ahead of the threats around us."

Q: Can you elaborate on Iran? 

"We understand the technological development on the other side, and it is mainly related to the ability to detect and intercept – the need to detect the threat, track it, project its trajectory, and choose the most appropriate point to intercept it. As I said, one system cannot do all of these, because it is a complex response that includes both interceptions outside and inside the atmosphere, and this requires radars of different wavelengths so that we can detect the threat and intercept it."

Q: How would you rate Iran's capabilities at this time? 

"This is an ongoing war, with missiles that have different capabilities, some of which are more successful and some less so, but the score is not bad, and our job is to take all their systems and know how to give them the required response. I think we are not in a bad place at all from what we see."

The space front 

Since the beginning of 2021, the IAI has launched two observation satellites into space: the EROS-C3 advanced observation satellite whose technologies enable high-resolution images and for the first time use of a multi-spectral camera, and Ofek 13, an observation satellite with advanced capabilities. 

"Both are now in space, passing over us every hour and a half and downloading images of unprecedented quality and accuracy for Israel."

Q: Can you explain this in layman's terms? 

"We are all used to pulling out our cell phones and taking photos of quality that is not bad. Now imagine that we pull out our cell phones at an altitude of 500 kilometers above us, and receive a picture of almost similar quality, one that allows us to distinguish significant details and know exactly what is happening."

Q: So much so that you can identify faces? 

"That's still a bit complicated, but I'm sure we'll get there." 

Interestingly, over a decade ago, the IAI was on the verge of going out of business. The prevailing thought was that satellites could be purchased abroad, saving on the major costs of development, launch, and maintenance. However, the information revolution and the need to maintain independence in the intelligence-operational field led to the opposite decision – to increase investment in satellites and to build and launch more satellites into space. 

According to Levy, Israel currently has sufficient coverage in terms of territory but needs more satellites for more continuous coverage, that is, to minimize the time gap between each passage of the satellite over a particular point. As part of these preparations, the Defense Ministry is promoting a space program that will include not only observation satellites but also communication satellites.

"The war in Ukraine has taught us that communication satellites – the ability to receive the broadcasts from the ground and return them – is critical, and is a strategic asset for Israel," he said. 

"I think the world knows that we have very good capabilities in this field, one of the best there is, in all aspects – both in resolution, in wavelength, at day and night time – and therefore there is a lot of interest in what we do."

Q: The world has once again turned its attention to space weapons. Is it something you are also involved in? 

"We are listening, of course, and also thinking about it. The innovation systems in the IAI operate in all areas, and we always try to be ahead of the others. We are studying this subject, and trying to understand how it would be possible to combine capabilities of this type most optimally. This is an area in which all the superpowers are investing, and if you ask me if I see it happening – then yes, I see it happening, but I don't know when it will happen."

Levy also spoke of the Lavi single-engined fourth-generation multirole jet fighter, the development of which caused controversy in Israel, due to the enormous associated costs, and was ultimately nixed by the government after decades of criticism. 

"When you have no choice, you do it," he said. "And when you have another choice – it is not economical to do it. But it is necessary to maintain the ability, and we are maintaining it. The IAI has the only production line in Israel for a jet, albeit a business one, but it is a jet that is fully designed and manufactured here."

Q: And should the need arise, will you also be able to create a jet fighter as well? 

"Assuming there's a need and there's a budget, we will know how to do all of it. We are in this field in all its aspects."

Levy, 61, holds a bachelor's degree in Aeronautical and Space Engineering, and a master's degree in Systems Engineering, both from the Technion in Haifa. He has worked in the aerospace industry since 1989, and most of the time oversaw the development of air and space defense systems and was a member of the founding team of the Arrow Program Directorate. He was appointed interim president of the IAI in November 2020, an appointment that became permanent last year. 

Like his counterparts in the other defense industries, Levy rarely gives interviews – a result of the inherent discretion in the field, the demands of the customers and the sensitivity involved.

His decision to be interviewed by Israel Hayom stems not only from the prosperous business period that the company is going through but also from the timing – the IAI's 70th anniversary which coincides with Israel's celebrations of its 75th Independence Day. 

"The history of the IAI is closely intertwined with the history of the state," Levy said. "It started as a need to provide care for the planes that arrived at the founding of the state. Equipment was brought here, and there was no one to care for the planes and restore them to serviceability, and that's how a factory was established from where today's IAI developed."

Since then, the company has always been there to cater to the state's needs.  

"In the 1960s, when Israel faced an operational problem, the IAI brought [the] Gabriel [skimming anti-ship missile], the first sea-to-sea missile of its kind. And when Israel faced an embargo on transport aircraft, the company invented the Arava [utility transport] aircraft.

"When there was an embargo on fighter jets, the Kfir [all-weather multirole combat aircraft ] and the Lavi were developed, and when there was a need to protect against ballistic missiles, the IAI developed the groundbreaking Arrow system. And there is also the UAV – a real need to bring intelligence with autonomous capabilities, which we already brought in in the 80s, and of course satellites – after we returned [the] Sinai [peninsula to Egypt in 1982 following the 1979 Peace Treaty] and required another eye in place of the returned territory, we brought this eye from space, and this is how the IAI was founded. There is no other company in the world that does all of it." 

Q: So how does Israel do it all? 

"We are a government defense manufacturer that can fulfill the needs of the country. You can talk to us about the most sensitive things and do the most complex operations with us. Our engineers are senior officers in the military, who sit in their units and identify the need or the operational gap, and then return to the factory and work on closing this gap, then return to as part of reserve duty in the units and operate the tools they have developed. This is a unique coming full circle, which connects us to our main customer, the Defense Ministry." 

Such work is being conducted with serious competition from international business rivals. Only about a quarter of the IAI's sales volume is in Israel, and the rest is abroad. According to Levy, technological advantage is the way to win. 

"We are a company of 15,000 employees, of whom 6,000 are engineers, of whom 2,000 have masters degrees and doctorates. They bring us solutions. As a government company, with the salaries set by the state and competition from outside, it is not an easy challenge to maintain this human capital."

The key to winning in this business competition, he said, is in adapting each system to the specific needs of the customer – from the development and production stage to operation and maintenance. In addition, the fact that many of the systems were procured by the IDF and have proven themselves operationally is a significant sales factor against competitors. And as mentioned above, the war in Ukraine, and the urgent need that arose for reliable combat systems, increased the demand to an unprecedented level. 

This was reflected in the IAI financial data as well, which previously fell upon harder times. 

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"We had a few difficult years," Levy admitted. "The industry was rocky, and then the pandemic came, which leveled us all. But COVID was also an opportunity for us, because we showed our customers that we are reliable.

"We worked all over the world during the pandemic, we sent out shipments, we kept up with it. Customers told us that we were the only ones who delivered the products when they needed them, and I think this is part of the change that led to the good performance in the last two years."

In 2022, the IAI  broke a record with sales amounting to approximately $5 billion and new contracts amounting to $7.4 billion, which were added to a backlog of orders that currently stands at approximately $16 billion. 

"Our profitability has also increased and is the highest it has ever been, and we understand that only a company that is profitable will be able to sell worldwide." 

Q: Is privatization or IPO still on the agenda? 

"IAI enjoys the fact that it is a government company, and it will remain a government company forever. Even when we talk about an IPO, we are talking about a minority IPO, and the controlling stake will always remain with the state, because of the very special things we do for Israel's security. And yet, we look forward and strive for an IPO because there are things that need to be changed, such as employee wages or company procurement, which will allow us to be more flexible like other business companies in the market, and I assume that will change after the IPO."

Q: Do you have an idea as to when that will happen?

"There is approval from a ministerial committee from November 2020, and I assume that it will mature in the current government and we will launch a minority IPO. I don't know when exactly this will happen and to what extent, but it should happen in the next year or two so that the IAI will continue to grow as an international company, which will acquire companies abroad and conduct some of its activities there."

Q: Did the Abraham Accords help expand opportunities for the IAI?

"The accords opened our horizons in several aspects. First in regional cooperation, then in technological-business cooperation, and finally in cooperation in weapons systems. There are contacts, there are processes, the issue is under the leadership of the Defense Ministry, and we are doing everything to assist and promote it."

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The Defense Ministry together with Israel Aerospace Industries on Wednesday successfully launched the Ofek 13 satellite into space, the ministry's statement said.

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Ofek 13 is an observation satellite with advanced capabilities. Once it enters the orbit, it will undergo a "series of tests to ensure its propriety and performance levels," the ministry said.

"The IMoD Space and Satellite Administration in the Directorate of Defense Research & Development (DDR&D), the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) successfully launched the Ofek 13 satellite into space at 02:10 IST today [Wednesday]. The launch took place at a test site in central Israel using a Shavit launcher," the statement said.

The IMoD Space and Satellite Administration has led the development and production of the satellite and its launcher. The IDF's 9900 Intelligence Unit and the Israeli Air Force also participated in the development process. The launch engines were developed by Rafael Advanced Systems and Tomer, a government-owned company, the defense ministry statement added.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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Ramon.Space and Lulav Space announced today that the two companies are partnering to provide an advanced navigation solution for the Beresheet 2 lunar missions scheduled for 2025. The Beresheet 2 lunar missions are developed by SpaceIL, an Israeli organization for space development, with an aim to conduct a double landing on the Moon and continue in orbit for five years as a platform for science education activities.

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According to the agreement, Lulav Space will implement its vision-based landing sensor algorithms on Ramon.Space's radiation-hardened computing platform and unique in-house RC64, a machine learning, DSP processor. Ramon.Space's technology effectively supports advanced computer vision algorithms such as those that are being developed by Lulav Space.

"SpaceIL is proud to select Lulav Space as a landing sensor supplier for Beresheet 2 landers and to work together with Lulav Space and Ramon.Space to perform successful lunar landings on both sides of the Moon in our next challenging mission," said Shimon Sarid, CEO of SpaceIL.

"An accurate, robust navigation sensor is critical to support lunar landings," said Noam Leiter, CEO at Lulav Space. "We are thrilled to have been chosen by SpaceIL for the Beresheet 2 mission. By using Ramon.Space's computing platform, we can develop our advanced algorithms easily, rapidly, and reliably to ensure the most accurate and detailed information and support this historic mission."

The capabilities that Ramon.Space enables include simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms to provide position and velocity to the lander navigation system during the lunar descent as well as hazard detection methods to allow for a safe landing.

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Iran likely suffered another failed launch of a satellite-carrying rocket in recent days attempting to reinvigorate a program criticized by the West, even as Tehran faces last-minute negotiations with world powers to save its tattered nuclear deal in Vienna.

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Satellite images from Maxar Technologies seen by The Associated Press show scorch marks at a launchpad at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's rural Semnan province on Sunday. A rocket stand on the pad appears scorched and damaged, with vehicles surrounding it. An object, possibly part of the gantry, sits near it.

Successful launches typically don't damage rocket gantries because they are lowered prior to takeoff. Iran also usually immediately trumpets launches that reach space on its state-run television channels, and it has a history of not acknowledging failed attempts.

Separate images from Planet Labs PBC suggest the attempted launch likely occurred sometime after Friday. Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the U.S. military and the White House.

The rocket involved appears to have been Iran's Zuljanah satellite launch vehicle, said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who first noticed the attempted launch with colleagues.

The gantry apparently damaged in the launch resembled another that was previously used in a successful launch last year of a Zuljanah, named after a horse of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and a key figure in the Shiite faith who was massacred with his fighters at Karbala in the 7th century.

It remains unclear what could have caused the blast. The first two stages of a Zuljanah are solid fuel, but its final stage is liquid and would have needed to be fueled on the launch pad, Lewis said.

"This just looks like it got interrupted, like something exploded," Lewis told AP.

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