Heavy-lift Ariane flies skyward

Europe’s most powerful rocket – the Ariane 5-ECA – has launched from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.
The heavy-lift vehicle roared away from its pad with the thrust of 10 Concordes at 2046 local time (2346 GMT).

It was only the third flight for the rocket which had a disastrous first outing in 2002 when it had to be destroyed shortly after launch.

The ECA has the capability to push 10 tonnes of payload towards geostationary orbit, 36,000km above the Earth.

Onboard the vehicle was the Spaceway 2 satellite, which is owned by DirecTV and designed to deliver television and broadband signals to the US; and the Telekom 2 spacecraft, which will be used by PT Telekom Indonesia to expand its telephony and data coverage in Asia.

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