Arianespace has set the new launch date of the Helios 2B satellite on 17 December, following the corrective actions on the liquid helium subsystem on Ariane 5’s cryogenic main stage.

Arianespace announced the corrective actions, following an anomaly, which occurred during the original final countdown on 9 December.

In the upcoming flight, Helios 2B will ride as a solo payload, and deploy the French military observation satellite into a Sun-synchronous polar orbit.

The Helios 2B satellite with a lift-off mass of nearly 4,200kg, will serve as the second platform in a new-generation spaceborne observation system for military applications.