JERUSALEM, SEPT. 19 -- In a demonstration of technological skill and a burst of national pride, Israel launched its first satellite today, a major step toward developing the independent capability to spy from outer space on neighboring Arab states.
An Israeli-built rocket blasted off from a launch site in the Negev Desert at 11:32 a.m. and deposited the Horizon I experimental satellite about 155 miles into space. Surprised bathers at a beach south of Tel Aviv burst into applause as the rocket climbed in a western arc over the Mediterrean.
Israeli officials characterized the satellite as an experimental research vehicle and said its life expectancy was only about one month. But they confirmed plans to launch a second, more permanent communications satellite in the near future and acknowledged that both orbiters would perform unspecified military functions.
Analysts said a spy satellite would serve two purposes for Israel: to obtain more pinpoint intelligence data on the weapons systems and troop movements of other Middle Eastern countries and to free Israel from its present total dependence on the United States for such satellite data.
Israeli officials have long contended that better intelligence information is crucial at a time when Arab states such as Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia are purchasing new and much more sophisticated aircraft and ground-to-ground missiles and closing the military gap with Israel. At the same time, these officials have often complained privately about tensions with their American intelligence counterparts in making available such sensitive data.
Information from American spy satellites reportedly constituted some of the key intelligence material stolen for Israel by U.S. naval intelligence staff worker Jonathan Pollard before his arrest in November 1985.
"If you are fed from the crumbs of others according to their whim, this is very inconvenient and very difficult," Meir Amit, chief of General Satellite Corp., and a former head of the Mossad secret service, told Israeli radio in an interview. "If you have your own independent capability you climb one level higher."
Israel leaders denied that the satellite would introduce a new element into the already intense Middle East arms race.
But they boasted of the country's achievement in becoming only the eighth nation in the world to put such a system into orbit.
"It's a contribution not to the arms race but to the technology race," said Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. "There are very few countries capable of such an achievement. The Israelis and the Jewish people can be justly proud."
Asked whether such a satellite might serve as a deterrent to Arab countries in planning military strategy against Israel, Shamir replied: "That is not the main goal. I would not put the emphasis there but we all know that every addition to Israel's strength and economy is also an addition to Israel's security."
In Washington, Gary Milhollin, a resident scholar at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, said calculations based on information on the launch obtained from Israel indicate that the rocket has the power to reach Moscow with a nuclear weapon or other substantial payload. This range would also allow it to reach distant Arab countries such as Libya.
The launch came just one day after Israel's finance minister announced new budget cuts and increases of up to 30 percent in prices of some food staples, and there is expected to be some political backlash to a project estimated to have cost nearly $200 million. But most Israelis appeared to welcome the successful launch as a morale booster and as new evidence of Israel's technological and military wizardry at a time when the Army appears hamstrung by the nine-month-old Palestinian uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel's largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Aharonoth, published a special edition this afternoon to celebrate the launch and Israel's state run national radio and Army radio repeatedly replayed a tape of the missile's thundering take-off.
"It's a holiday for Israel's scientists, technicians and industry," said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. "It's a celebration for all those who have faith in Israel, those who love the abilities it has and the hopes that go with her."
Peres added in an Israeli radio interview, "The launching has shown that Israel is capable of shaking off mediocrity and routine. We can do the same in other spheres such as the economy and relations with our neighbors."
Moshe Keret, head of Israel Aircraft Industries, one of the builders of the satellite, denied that the experimental model launched today was either a spy satellite or a communications unit.
"This is a technological research satellite," he said. "We wanted to check our ability and capability and to demonstrate our technology, and that is the only purpose of this satellite." Keret also said the satellite systems had been designed in Israel. "It is indigenous technology, . . . and very little was purchased outside."
However The Associated Press quoted a spokesman for Jane's Defense Weekly who said Israel was not believed to have the capability to install sophisticated optical equipment in such a satellite. "U.S. optical equipment is assumed to have been used in the payload," said Tony Banks, a reporter for the weekly, who said the satellite was believed to carry a 6.6 pound payload for surveillence purposes.
The government did not say what rocket Israel used to lift the satellite into orbit. There was speculation that it was either a Jericho II rocket or a newer Comet rocket.
Yuval Neeman, the chief of the Israel Space Agency, said a second satellite was under development and would be used in carrying out further tests. He said the 330-pound satellite had a solar-powered electrical system and was shaped like the bullet of a pistol with wing-like solar panels. He said it could rise as high as 650 miles.
