What will Morocco’s first university satellites be used for?

On August 16, Morocco launched its first two university satellites (“UM5-EOSat” and “UM5-Ribat”) aboard the “Falcon 9” rocket of the American company “SpaceX”, from the Vandenberg base in California.

“This project, carried out on August 16 at 7:56 p.m., is the result of collaboration between the university, the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research and the Royal Center for Space Studies and Research,” said Mohammed V University of Rabat in a statement. The two satellites each have “a mass of less than 4 kilograms and dimensions of approximately 300x100x100 millimeters,” the note said, specifying that the first satellite, “UM5-EOSat,” is equipped with a camera intended to monitor the Earth, and the second, “UM5-Ribat,” is equipped with a software-defined radio.