Monday, June 19 2006 10:01 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jerusalem: Israel is likely to launch its 18.2 million US$ worth TauvexII scientific telescope for astronomical research of the galaxies aboard India's GSAT-4 satellite by mid next year.

"A delegation from ISRO recently visited Israel to review the progress in the project, including a short visit by its Chairman, and found that the progress is smooth and the telescope is close to integration stage", Director of Israel Space Agency (ISA), Zvi Kaplan told sources.

"A crew from El-op, which is supplying the camera and scientists from the Tel Aviv University will meet next month to start the process of integration and to check other technical aspects in the context of the whole system", Kaplan said.

The telescope was designed to be launched aboard a Russian launcher at a cost of 15 million USD and another 3.2 million US$ is being spent to adopt it to the Indian launcher, sources at the ISA said.

The launch is a part of the agreement signed between ISA and ISRO for scientific cooperation between the two countries in the field of astronomy in the Ultra-Violet spectrum in December 2003 during the visit of then Science and Technology minister Eliezer Sandberg to India.

The TAUVEX II electro-optical space camera is for scientific exploration and comprises three telescopes for observation in the 'ultra-violet' spectrum for astronomical research of the galaxies.

Research activities based on imagery received from the camera will be performed jointly by academic institutions in both India and Israel.