Palmachim Air Force Base is an Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i military facility and spaceport

Spaceport

A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...

 located near the cities of Rishon LeZion and Yavne

Yavne

Yavne is a city in the Central District of Israel. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a population of 33,000.-History:...

 on the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

. It is named after nearby Kibbutz

Kibbutz

A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...

 Palmachim

Palmachim

Palmachim is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located about ten kilometers south of the Tel Aviv area along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, among the sand dunes, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gan Raveh Regional Council...

 on the Mediterranean

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

 shore.

The base is home to several IAF helicopter

Helicopter

A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

 and UAV

Unmanned aerial vehicle

An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...

 squadrons, and serves as a rocket launch site for the Arrow missile. Palmachim is also used to launch the Shavit

Shavit

Shavit is a space launch vehicle produced by Israel to launch small satellites into low earth orbit. It was first launched on September 19, 1988 , making Israel the eighth country to have a space launch capability after the USSR, United States, France, Japan, People's Republic of China, United...

 space

Outer space

Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....

 launch vehicle

Launch vehicle

In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure....

 into retrograde orbit by launching over the Mediterranean, acting as Israel's primary spaceport. This ensures that rocket debris falls into water, and that the rocket does not fire over regional enemy countries near Israel that could use the technology.

Recent launches include:

• 11 June 2007 - Ofeq
  Ofeq
  Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...
  
   7 satellite

• 22 June 2010 - Ofeq 9 satellite

In July 2007, it was agreed that once Sde Dov Airport

Sde Dov Airport

Sde Dov Airport , also known as Dov Hoz Airport is an airport located in Tel Aviv, Israel which mainly handles scheduled domestic flights to Eilat and , northern Israel , and the Israeli Golan Heights. It is Tel Aviv's largest airport and the second largest in the area, after Ben Gurion...

 in Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

 was closed, its military terminal would be transferred to Palmachim
although Sde Dov Airport

Sde Dov Airport

Sde Dov Airport , also known as Dov Hoz Airport is an airport located in Tel Aviv, Israel which mainly handles scheduled domestic flights to Eilat and , northern Israel , and the Israeli Golan Heights. It is Tel Aviv's largest airport and the second largest in the area, after Ben Gurion...

 continues to operate.

Units

• 124th Squadron
  124 Squadron (Israel)
  The 124 Squadron of the Israeli Air Force, also known as the Rolling Sword Squadron, is a helicopter squadron of S-70A and UH-60 Black Hawks based at Palmachim Airbase.-References:...
  
   – operating S-70
• 151st Squadron (Missile Testing Squadron)
• 160th Squadron – operating AH-1
• 166th Squadron – operating Hermes 450 UAVs
• 200th Squadron – operating Heron UAVs

Launch history

Type of rocket	Date of Launch	Launch Location	Payload	Mission Status
Shavit Shavit Shavit is a space launch vehicle produced by Israel to launch small satellites into low earth orbit. It was first launched on September 19, 1988 , making Israel the eighth country to have a space launch capability after the USSR, United States, France, Japan, People's Republic of China, United...	September 19th 1988	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 1 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Success, experimental payload
Shavit	April 3rd 1990	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 2 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Success, experimental payload
Shavit	September 15th 1994	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq ? Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Failure, unknown payload
Shavit-1	April 5th 1995	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 3 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Success, first israeli operational satellite in orbit
Shavit-1	January 22nd 1998	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 4 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Failure
Shavit-1	May 28th 2002	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 5 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Success, second israeli operational satellite in orbit
Shavit-1	September 6th 2004	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 6 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Failure
Shavit-2	June 11th 2007	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 7 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Success, third israeli operational satellite in orbit
Shavit-2	June 22nd 2010	Palmachim Airbase	Ofeq 9 Ofeq Ofeq, also spelled Offek or Ofek is the designation of a series of Israeli reconnaissance satellites first launched in 1988. All Ofeq satellites have been carried on top of Shavit rockets from Palmachim Airbase in Israel, on the Mediterranean coast. The Low Earth Orbit satellites complete one...	Success

External links

• Palmachim Airbase
• Palmachim Airbase