BY ANDRE I ASHDOD ALL RIGHT RESERVED
AMOS is a name for a series of Israeli communications satellites. AMOS are developed by Israel Aircraft Industries and operated by the private company Spacecom.
AMOS 1 [1] [2] was the first Israeli communications satellite. Its development was based on experience from Ofeq reconnaissance satellites in association with DASA and Alcatel Espace. It was launched on May 16, 1996 from European Space Centre in French Guiana.
It is in use for home TV services (DTH/DBS by the Yes company in Israel and by HBO and others in Europe. Space Communications LTD quickly succeeded in filling all transmission capacity of Amos 1 and accumulated additional requests. Therefore Space Communications LTD decided to broaden its activity and initiated Amos 2 creation, which is today in its full ownership.
AMOS-2 satellite launchAMOS 2 [3] [4] was launched on December 28, 2003 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan and it serves clients in three service regions: Middle East (including Israel), Europe and the east coast of USA. Transmission and communication services provided by this satellite include: direct distribution of TV and radio translations; TV and radio translations to communication centers; distribution of internet services, data tranmissions to communication networks.
Amos 1 and Amos 2 are placed in proximity to a create common location, which enables satellite users to increase user abilities without additional antennas.
AMOS 3 [5] is planned to be launched in the beginning of 2008.
AMOS 4 [6] is planned to be launched in mid 2010.