Posted: Wed, May 29, 2002, 1:04 PM ET (1704 GMT)
Israel and Russia separately launched military satellites within hours of each other on Tuesday. A Shavit rocket successfully launched Israel's Ofeq 5 reconnaissance satellite Tuesday at 11:25 am EDT (1525 GMT) from the Palmachim launch site south of Tel Aviv. The launch ends a gap in military imaging capability for Israel after the Ofeq 3 satellite ended its mission over a year ago; Ofeq 4 failed to reach orbit when launched in 1998. A Russian Kosmos-3M booster launched an unidentified satellite at 2:15 pm EDT (1815 GMT) Tuesday from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Few details about the satellite, which would be named Kosmos 2389 under current nomenclature standards, were released, although some sources have identified it as a navigation satellite.

Related Links:

•  Spaceflight Now article
•  AP article about Ofeq launch
•  Jerusalem Post article about Ofeq launch
•  AFP article about Kosmos launch