FalconEye 2 finally took off at 01:33 UTC on December 2 on a Soyuz-2 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. This was the fourth launch attempt, following multiple scrubs.

The last scrub was on November 30th due to problems with the ground system, specifically the telemetry receiver. This came after scrubs on the 28th and 29th because of the weather.

This satellite was originally supposed to have been launched on an Arianespace Vega, their small class launch vehicle.  The customer, United Arab Emirates, had previously used Vega for the launch of FalconEye One — which unfortunately was the first Vega failure. It was switched to a Soyuz-2 for a launch this past spring, but a problem with the Fregat (the fourth stage of Arianespace’s Soyuz) caused a delay in that launch by a month and then it was pushed to the fall after a decision was made to completely replace the Fregat.

The failure of the FalconEye One launch was caused by a problem with the Vega’s 2nd stage, the Zefiro 23, that caused it to not make it to orbit.

This launch marks the 1,928th launch (both successes and failures) of an R7-derived Soyuz since 1957.

More Information

Arianespace press release 

Arianespace mission page 

SpaceFlight Now article