France launches military satellite
December 19th, 2009 - 2:58 am ICT by IANSParis, Dec 19 (IANS) France has launched a military satellite from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana.
The Helios 2B satellite was launched atop Arianne 5 rocket by the Arianespace centre in South America, Xinhua reported. The rocket lifted off at 1626 GMT Friday.
The 4.2-tonne satellite, heading into sun-synchronous polar orbit, is part of the second-generation observation system for security and defence applications developed by France in collaboration with Belgium, Spain, Italy and Greece.
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