Shavit (Hebrew: "comet") is a launch vehicle produced by Israel. It was first launched on September 19, 1988, allowing Israel to become the eighth country to have a space launch capability. Shavit was based on the Jericho II intermediate range ballistic missile and is launched from the seashore by the Israel Space Agency into a retrograde orbit to prevent debris from landing in Arab territory. Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Photo of the comet Hale-Bopp above a tree. ... Rockets (including missiles) can be launched from the following: for a launch into an orbital spaceflight and beyond: a launch pad, including a floating platform (see San Marco platform, Sea Launch) for the launch into a suborbital flight also: a missile silo a mobile launcher vehicle a submarine air launch... September 19 is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years). ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A country, a land, is a geographical area that connotes an independent political entity, with its own government, administration, laws, often a constitution, police, military, tax rules, and population, who are one anothers countrymen. ... Outer space (also called just space) as a name for a region, refers to the relatively empty parts of the Universe, outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies. ... A missile (British English: miss-isle; U.S. English: missl) is, in general, a projectile—that is, something thrown or otherwise propelled. ... A coastal image featured on a United States postal stamp. ... In physics, an orbit is the path that an object makes, around another object, whilst under the influence of a source of centripetal force, such as gravity. ... The Arabs (Arabic: عرب ʻarab) are an originally Arabian ethnicity widespread in the Middle East and North Africa. ...