Due to the unfavorable weather conditions currently observed over the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, Arianespace has decided to delay the launch – planned for October 4, 2016 – by 24 hours.

Flight VA231 will place into geostationary transfer orbit the Sky MusterTM II and GSAT-18 telecommunications satellites.

As the weather forecast for tomorrow is favorable, the liftoff of the Ariane 5 is now planned for Wednesday, October 5, 2016, as early as possible within the following launch window:

Between 05:30 p.m. and 06:45 p.m. , Kourou time

, Kourou time Between 04:30 p.m. and 05:45 p.m. , Washington D.C. time

, Washington D.C. time Between 20:30 and 21:45 , Universal Time (UTC)

, Universal Time (UTC) Between 10:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. , Paris time

, Paris time Between 02:00 a.m. and 03:15 a.m. , Bangalore, India time on October 6

, Bangalore, India time on October 6 Between 07:30 a.m. and 08:45 a.m., Sydney, Australia time on October 6.

The launcher, with its Sky MusterTM II and GSAT-18 satellite payloads, remains in a safe standby condition.