The satellite Mohammed VI-B belonging to the Kingdom of Morocco was launched on November 21 at 3:43 am, Kyiv time, from the Kourou launch site (French Guyana). It is the second satellite of the Moroccan space program launched in 2013 on the personal instruction of the King of Morocco. The first satellite, Mohammed VI-A, was launched a year ago, on November 8, 2017. The implementation of the Moroccan space program has been undertaken by the industry leaders such as French-Italian corporation Thales Alenia Space and French-British concern Airbus.

The satellites Mohammed VI-B and Mohammed VI-A are operated by the Moroccan engineers and technical experts who have benefited from long specialized training, both in Morocco and abroad. Both satellites can take very high resolution images, and their complementarity allows obtaining a variety of information on the state of the region even more efficiently. And there will be a lot of these data - after all, the Moroccan satellites are designed to perform a variety of tasks in several domains at once.

In particular, the data received from the satellites Mohammed VI-A and Mohammed VI-B are in high demand in the sphere of agriculture and water management. It is no secret that Morocco, in large part, is an agrarian country located, furthermore, in the arid region of North-West Africa. Therefore, the control over the irrigation system and timely forecast of natural disasters are crucial for the Moroccan economy. With the new satellites, the agriculture of the Kingdom of Morocco will become much more stable and efficient.

Another major area of ​​application for the new satellites will be geodesy and cartography. The work that once took months, takes a few minutes today owing to the latest space technologies. Researchers easily perceive all the necessary information: changes in relief, information on geological and water resources, state of the forests and coasts, data on the process of urbanization. This will allow the competent services in Morocco not only to obtain the most detailed information on the country as never before, but also to make long-term forecasts of its development.

Besides, satellite data will be in demand in oceanography (the Atlantic coast of Morocco stretches over 3500 km), in forecasting natural disasters, in assessing and protecting the biological resources, in urban planning, in combating desertification, and in many other matters that the North African country faces every day.