[Satellite TODAY 12-09-09] Arianespace has postponed the launch of the French Space Agency’s (CNES) Helios 2B military observation satellite due to an anomaly in the launcher’s subsystem, Arianespace announced Dec. 9.
    The decision was made to abort the launch during final countdown. Arianespace said it will attempt another launch in a few days and has placed the Ariane 5 vehicle and the Helios 2B satellite payload in stand-by mode.
     Helios 2B, built and developed by EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, will be placed into a Sun-synchronous orbit and managed by the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA), which assigned contracting authority for the space segment to CNES. Helios 2B is the second satellite in France’s next-generation space-borne observation system for military applications that will be used in conjunction with Belgium, Spain, Italy and Greece.