Mekhzen Launches A Spy Satellite On Algeria, Spain

A Spanish report entitled “Morocco launches the first artificial spy satellite in Spain and divides the military concession of Spain”, revealed details of the deal between Rabat, the European company “Airbus Defense and Space” and “Thales Alenia Space”, after the visit of Fronçois Holland to Morocco in 2013.

The report added that Morocco will launch on November, 8, the “Vega” of the company “Ariane” to carry the satellite El Moroccan EO Sat1 into space.
It said that it was a “high resolution Earth observation” satellite, that is made in France, and “is completely confidential”.
“It is not a single satellite, but a program with a financial value of more than 500 million euros, including two satellites: The first is named “MN35-13″, which will be launched on November 8, while the second is expected to be sent to Space in 2018, but there is not much information about it”.
“The confidentiality of the deal made it difficult to know some of the characteristics of the new Moroccan satellite, but it is supposed to be a copy of the French artificial satellites”, Pléiades 1 and Pléiades 2, which were sent by France to space in 2011 and 2012, this is why informed sources suggested that the two artificial Moroccan satellites are copies of the French satellites under the name of MN35-13, especially since the satellites “Pléades” are separated by 180 degrees, in other words, when the first is in the East, the second is in the West, which allows access to high precision images, and monitor earth every day, recording both small and large details”.
“Moroccan military satellite is capable of monitoring and reconnaissance with high accuracy in a line that extends along 800 kilometers, and can take 500 pictures per day and sent it to the ground control station at the top every 6 hours”.
The satellite weighs 970 kilometers and flies at 695 kilometers from Earth.
“The moon arrived at the Kourou base of the Guayana region on last September 23, which is 45 days before it was launched into space.The Moon’s observation station is located near Rabat airport and will be part of the Moroccan Defense Department”.
According to the Spanish report, one of the goals of the Moroccan satellite is combating irregular migration and smuggling of all kinds, hunting down armed groups and monitoring the movements of pirates at the level of the Gulf of Guinea, and monitoring its porous borders, which are easy to infiltrate.
However, the report believes that these targets remain normal, intuitive, known and raise no concerns, but there are other targets, as the satellite can also obtain detailed information about military installations and movements of military forces to the neighbors, Spain and Algeria, or the Polisario Front “(..)!
Spanish report quotes the Spanish military sources as saying that; “For the first time, quoting Spanish military sources, that Paris stood by Rabat during the crisis of Layla island on July 17, 2002, which caused a war between the two countries, as France did not allow Spain to obtain pictures of the island of Layla on the satellite “Helios”, and the military source says: “It was not possible to obtain in time the photographs of Helios due to the technical problems”.