Arianespace successfully launched two communications satellites into orbit Wednesday from its spaceport on the northern coast of South America.
The Ariane 5 rocket carried the Koreasat 6 satellite for the Korean Telecom Corp. and the Hispasat 1E satellite for Spanish telecom operator Hispasat into orbit. It was Arianespace's sixth and final launch of the year from its compound in French Guiana.
The launch had been scheduled for Tuesday, but was postponed for a day due to high-altitude winds at the launch site.
Arianespace is the the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency.
“I want to thank all of those who contributed to this new Ariane 5 success,” Arianespace's chairman and chief executive officer, Jean-Yves Le Gall, said from the Kourou spaceport’s mission control room.
Le Gall congratulated Arianespace’s operational team for their performance during 2010.
"Your flexibility, reactivity, reliability, availability — and above all — the passion you bring enabled us to meet our engagements," he said. "You have worked with perseverance and determination in responding to our objectives, and you have shown anew why you are the best operational team in the world."
Hispasat 1E is to provide high-quality capacity for direct-to-home television, digital terrestrial television, high-definition and broadband services for mobile, land and maritime environments. Koreasat 6 will handle broadcasting and communication services across South Korea.
The next launch from Kourou is scheduled for Feb. 15. An Ariane 5 is due to send the second European ATV cargo spaceship, dubbed the Johannes Kepler, to the International Space Station.
This report includes information from The Associated Press and msnbc.com.
