Europe's Ariane 6 rocket successfully launches for first time
The Peninsula
Kourou: Europe s new Ariane 6 rocket successfully blasted off for the first time on Tuesday, releasing satellites into orbit and restoring the contine...
Kourou: Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket successfully blasted off for the first time on Tuesday, releasing satellites into orbit and restoring the continent's independent access to space.
The much-delayed inaugural flight of the European Space Agency's most powerful rocket yet launched from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 4pm local time (1900 GMT).
After an hour-long delay, caused by a small problem that was noticed in the morning, the rocket lifted off into clear skies.
The crew in the Jupiter control room, located 17 kilometres (10 miles) from the launch site, portrayed calm at first.
Then head of operations Raymond Boyce announced "propulsion nominal", meaning that the launch was going as planned.
