Ariane rocket launches satellites for Britain

KOUROU, French Guiana, Mar 12 (Reuters) A heavy-lift Ariane-5 rocket blasted-off from French Guiana early today, putting into orbit a British military satellite and an Indian telecommunications satellite in its first mission this year, space officials said.

The rocket launched on schedule from Europe's space base in Kourou, on the northeast coast of South America at 03 p m hrs (local time).

The launch was initially scheduled for Saturday, but a technical problem on the launch pad led to a 24-hour delay.

Twenty-seven minutes after lift-off, the rocket placed into a preliminary orbit the Skynet 5A satellite that will provide secure military communications for Britain's Ministry of Defence.

Five minutes later the Insat 4B satellite was released into space. Insat, a satellite of the Indian Space Research Organisation will be used primarily for direct-to-home television broadcasting throughout the Indian subcontinent.

Arianespace said it would attempt a total of six launches in 2007.

REUTERS SB BST1348