January 11, 2003	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 7, 1423

TEL AVIV, Jan 10: India and Israel expect to jointly launch a telescope-equipped satellite within two years, the head of Israel’s space agency, Avi Hareven, announced on public radio on Friday.

Israel joined the exclusive club of space spies last May when it launched its Ofek 5 satellite.

With a four-year-lifespan, Ofek 5 can photograph any region in the world 16 times a day.

Besides cooperating in space research with India, Israel also shares expertise with the United States, France, the Netherlands and Ukraine, Hareven said.

Hareven was interviewed as Israel is about to send its first astronaut to space, with Colonel Ilan Ramon set to lift off as a crew member of the US space shuttle Columbia on Jan 16.

NASA handpicked Ramon, 48, as a payload specialist in 1997, and he has been in training at the space centre here since 1998.—AFP