An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off in French Guiana on Friday to put into orbit the first African telecommunications satellite as well as another made by a United States-Japanese joint venture, Arianespace said.
The rocket, the 36th launch of an Ariane 5 and the sixth this year, lifted off at 9.42pm GMT and successfully placed the satellites for the pan-African operator RascomStar-QAF and US-Japanese Horizons 2 Satellite LLC.
The pan-African satellite, weighing 3,2 tonnes, is the first from the continent to be put into space. Several African dignitaries witnessed the launch but Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, who was expected, was a no-show.
The Horizons-2 satellite, weighing 2,3 tonnes, was manufactured by Satellite LLC, a joint venture between Intelsat of the US and Japanese firm JSAT. — Sapa-AFP