Jerusalem: Israeli and Indian technical space science teams will meet in New Delhi in January to prepare a timetable for launching an Israeli 'TAUVEX' experimental ultra-violet research telescope aboard India's geo-synchronous launch vehicle (GSLV) GSAT-4 satellite by September 2005.

The development follows on the heels of last week's signing in New Delhi of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Israel Space Agency (ISA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

ISA has allocated $ four million to finance the project's new interface programmes. These will adapt the TAUVEX's (Tel Aviv University Ultra Violet Experiment) three, 20-cm wide field identical co-aligned Ritchley-Chretien UV telescopes to India's 6.5 tonne GSLV, which will hurl GSAT-4 into space from Antariksh Bhavan space satellite station.

Israeli and Indian science and industry teams will fly between New Delhi and Tel Aviv in efforts to complete the technical adaptations by June 2005 when the 32 kg telescope is scheduled to arrive in India for final tests prior to the launch.

To date, Israel has invested $ 14 million in developing its UV telescope to probe the secrets of the universe. Its Israeli manufacturers, Electro Optics Ltd (Elop), claim it is superior to previous generation X-ray telescopes developed also by Israel, Denmark, Italy, the US and France.