Ofeq-3 and resolution caps
Israel's Ofeq-3 reconnaissance satellite reaches orbit, and informal arrangements take shape under which American commercial vendors agree to cap the resolution at which Israeli territory may be imaged.
A working catalogue entry, kept current. Each paragraph is drawn from the publicly documented record.
Israel's Ofeq-3 reconnaissance satellite enters orbit on 5 April 1995, providing Tel Aviv its first reliable indigenous satellite picture of regional adversaries. Concurrently, informal arrangements with American commercial vendors take shape under which the resolution at which Israel itself may be imaged is voluntarily capped — a precursor to the formal Kyl-Bingaman Amendment passed the following year.
The political principle established here is novel and consequential: a foreign state's licensing rules can dictate what an American commercial company may image, even on commercial contracts to non-American customers, anywhere in the world.
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