Arianespace has used — with Russia’s support — a Soyuz ST-A rocket to launch a joint military and civilian Earth imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces from the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana.
Liftoff of the Falcon Eye 2 satellite occurred at 20:33:28 EST on Tuesday, 1 December (01:33:28 UTC on Wednesday, 2 December) to ensure the satellite reached the proper sun-synchronous orbit at a mean altitude of 611 km.