The two Falcon Eye satellites are optical reconnaissance military craft procured by the Armed Forces of the United Arab Emirates.

They can resolve surface features down to 70 cm from a 611 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit -- meaning they pass over the same location of Earth's surface at the same local solar time each day.

Built by Airbus Space System and Thales Alenia Space groups, the satellites each cost roughly $391 million USD.

Falcon Eye was derived from France's Pléiades satellites, weigh less than 1,500 kg, and carry a publicly released lifespan of at least 5 years.

Falcon Eye-1 was lost in July 2019 in the launch failure of the Vega rocket.

(Photo credit: Airbus Defense & Space)

The Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M rocket as it is known to Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, is also called the Soyuz ST-A when used by Arianespace for European launches.

It is built by the Progress Rocket Space Centre (TsSKB-Progress) under the jurisdiction of Roscosmos.

The Soyuz 2.1a/Fregat-M provides medium-lift capability.

It can be launched from all three Roscosmos launch sites: the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in western Russia, and the Vostochny Cosmodrome in eastern Russia.

For Arianespace, it is primarily launched from Guiana Space Centre in South America, making it the only -- at present -- rocket to launch from more than one continent.

Image credit: CC "Yuzhny" / TSENKI / Roscosmos

The Guiana Space Center (French: Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG)) is a French and European spaceport located near Kourou in French Guiana near the northern tip of South America. The facility has been operational since 1968 and host launches for the European Space Agency (ESA), the French National Centre for Space Studies, and commercial companies Arianespace and Azercosmos.

A total of 9 different rocket types have launched from the Guiana Space Centre, including three active rockets and six retired vehicles.

The current rocket fleet at CSG is comprised of the Ariane 5 for heavy payloads, the Russian-provided Soyuz for medium-mass payloads, and Vega for smaller mass payloads.

The Ariane 6, currently under development, will launch from CSG beginning in the early 2020s.