Wind conditions in the atmosphere along the launcher’s trajectory are among the flight safety elements taken into account for every Arianespace mission. With this one-day postponement, the liftoff of Flight VV12 is now set for August 22 at exactly 6:20:09 p.m., local time in French Guiana.

The mission with Aeolus will be performed with a Vega launcher – provided by prime contractor Avio of Italy – marking the 12th flight of Arianespace’s light-lift vehicle since entering service at the Spaceport in February 2012.

Both the Vega launcher and its Aeolus payload for Flight VV12 are in stabilized configurations and under fully secure conditions at the Spaceport’s Vega Launch Complex.

Aeolus is a European Space Agency-organized mission to provide much-needed data in improving the quality of weather forecasts and contributing to long-term climate research. Built by Airbus Defence and Space, the satellite carries a laser Doppler wind LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system called Aladin that will probe the lowermost 30 km. of the atmosphere in measuring winds around the Earth.