The Sheldon Adelson Family Foundation has contributed $16.4 million to the Israel Lunar Project to build the world smallest spacecraft that SpaceIL hopes to land on the moon.

The donation is nearly half of the project’s budget, estimated at $36 million.

SpaceIL is an Israeli non-profit founded at the end of 2010 by three young engineers with the dream of landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon. They entered the Google Lunar X Prize (GLPX) competition, and SpaceIL now has a full-time staff of 20 people, more than 250 volunteers and a network of hundreds of renowned academics, business leaders, and industry experts.

SpaceIL hopes its technological breakthroughs spur a new wave of commercial space-related industries in Israel.

“Sheldon and I are very excited to be supporting SpaceIL in an effort to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon. As an Israeli-born physician and scientist, I am especially proud of the positive impact the pursuit of this goal will have on the next generation of young Israelis, and frankly all young people, as it serves an important example of the role science and technology continue to play in our everyday lives and across the world,” said Dr. Miriam Adelson.

Yanki Margalit, Chairman of SpaceIL Public Board, remarked that, “We will be able to significantly expand our impact and create the first blue and white moment of the 21st century.”

SpaceIL CEO Eran Privman added, “SpaceIL intends to expand its educational program and invest the needed resources in building the spacecraft. We only get one chance to succeed, so we intend to do all we can to increase our odds.”

Israel has launched another military satellite to keep an eye on Iran as the Islamic Republic ramps up its nuclear development program.

While international leaders continue to negotiate with Iran over slowing down its race to develop nuclear arms – an intent it denies despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – Israel is watching Tehran very closely. Iran has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel “off the map.”

On Wednesday the Defense Ministry sent its newest “eye in the sky” heavenward to join its predecessors in the mission to keep tabs on Iran and other enemies of the Jewish State.

The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI)’s Ofek 10 reconnaissance satellite is expected to orbit the Earth every 99 minutes – 800 times a year — from an altitude of 373 miles (600 kilometers) officials said. The process should take about 64,000 minutes annually. Like its predecessor, the new satellite was launched from the Palmachim Airbase near Rishon Lezion. And although the Ofek 9 carried a multi-spectral ‘Jupiter’ space camera produced by El-Op, its new brother has better equipment.

The camera on the Ofek 10 reportedly boasts resolution “much better than half a meter,” and is sharp enough to detect objects being carried by people, officials said. It is also capable of photographing under different lighting and changing weather conditions.

Two other Israeli satellites, the Ofek 5 and the Ofek 7, are still orbiting the Earth as well.

The Jewish State’s tenth satellite will also send images to other intelligence agencies.

Israel successfully  launched its “Ofek 10” satellite Wednesday night from the Palmachim Air Force Base near Tel Aviv.

The satellite has photo capabilities in all weather conditions and at night and is expected to bolster Israel’s intelligence system and security.

The above is a NASA satellite photo from this morning showing the snow in the Jerusalem environs and up in the Golan.

The Amos-4 communications satellite was successfully launched into space on Saturday night from Kazakhstan.

Spacecom, operator of the AMOS satellite fleet, announced that Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has selected Space International Services, Ltd. (SIS) to launch the AMOS-4 commercial satellite. The launch is scheduled to take place this Saturday night from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

AMOS-4 will be the second AMOS satellite launched by SIS on its Zenit-3SLB launch vehicle. AMOS-3 was launched to its 4ºW orbital position in 2008 on the same vehicle. AMOS-4′s launch weight will be approximately 4.2 tons, demonstrating that SIS has significantly increased the Zenit-3SLB vehicle’s performance since the AMOS-3 launch.

The satellite is expected to have a lifespan of 12 years.

Here are some photos from its construction and transportation to the launch site.

Cool. I wish I was going with it.

After the Europeans pulled the plug on Iranian satellite transmissions because of the sanctions against Iran, Iranian stations are back on the air.

The Iranians have reportedly transferred their transmissions over to a Russian satellite, once again bypassing the sanctions against them.

The Wall Street Journal reports that up until October 15, IRIB (Iran’s broadcast company) was using the services of Eutelsat Communications for broadcasting.

Rather ironically, just a week earlier, Iran was jamming the signal from the Eutelsat satellite when it showed Iranian citizens protesting.

Iran has been jamming many satellite transmissions as of late, including those of Voice of America -Persion service, and BBC Persian.