The European Space Agency said its next Meteosat satellite, MSG-2, will launch before the end of the year. MSG-2, in storage at the Arianespace launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana was planned to be launched in early autumn.

The Meteosat fleet delivers continuous weather images to European forecasters. The first of the Meteosat satellites, MSG-1 (renamed Meteosat-8) was launched in August 2002 and became operational at the beginning of 2004. The image data generated by its 12 spectral channels provide 20 times the information of previous generation satellites. Meteosat-8 disseminates improved information and imagery for weather forecasting as well as other applications such as hydrology, agriculture, environmental studies, as well as risk prevention and disaster warnings.