the TIE Surveyor? Was that in one of the addon packs?

If it experiences drag in the upper atmosphere, then a suitable wing should give it lift. I realise the wing may need to be several kilometres wide and super thin/light, so there are some practical details to be sorted out; but this could make it even more 'aerodynamic'.

Perhaps they meant the bay doors to the launch tower. Perhaps this launch tower is a re-purposed missile silo, or purpose built that way in order to defend against difficult weather or the like. I would imagine if the personnel door to the control tower was stuck, they would probably not abort the launch - especially with only 7 seconds until ignition.

They forgot the magic words - "Open the pod bay doors, HAL"

Lift isn't the problem. The craft is traveling fast enough around the earth that it "falls" in an arc the same diameter as it's orbit. The problem is drag at that low an altitude, so the wings would actually make the problem worse.

The Ion drive is to keep the speed up once it's in orbit. It doesn't do any lifting.

so whould the satellite be able to measure the very small variations in the Earth's gravity. when new tunnels are build below a border?

Does israel have a stack in that mission?

And then I wondered if it'll leave a pretty colour trail in the night sky.

And the I wondered if it'll say "Coca Cola"...