Europe's powerful Ariane-5rocket lifted off from the space centre at Kourou in French Guyana last night and launched Europe's biggest-ever satellite into orbit.
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The
Ariane-5takes off in French Guyana
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The 8.2-tonne satellite,
Envisat
, was released into orbit 27 minutes after the
Ariane-5
rocket lifted off from the centre just after 1 a.m Irish time.
The launch had been delayed since the middle of last year because of a fuel problem with the rocket, which was repaired prior to the launch.
The €2.4 billion satellite, baptised Envisat(for "environmental satellite"), is the heaviest and most complex ever launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) and will comprehensively monitor the Earth's environmental changes.
Its five-year mission is to record greenhouse gases, ocean levels, glacier thickness, the destruction of tropical forests and oil slicks at sea, among many other tasks related to the planet's ecology.
Measuring 10 metres in height and 26 metres in width, it was placed in an orbit at 800 kilometres that will take it over the Earth's poles and keep it permanently in sunlight.
AFP