The rocket left the launch pad at 1851 local Kourou time (2151 GMT).
The lift-off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana was originally scheduled for 23:06 local time on Friday (02:06 GMT, Saturday).
The vehicle left the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 23:06 local time on Monday (02:06 GMT, Tuesday), placing three satellites in orbit.
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The mission comes a week after a new generation Ariane-5 rocket was successfully launched from Kourou in its third and final qualification flight.
KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) -- Western Europe's 113th Ariane rocket is set to launch two satellites on Wednesday including AfriStar aimed at radio broadcasts to Africa.
KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) -- Western Europe's 113th Ariane rocket lifted two communications satellites into orbit for U.S.-based operators after a successful launch from equatorial French Guiana on Wednesday.
Vega will take its place alongside its "big brother" at Kourou - the Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, and the new medium-lift "Europeanised" Soyuz rocket that has only recently started launching from the spaceport.
An Ariane 5 rocket has been booked to launch Europe's third ATV cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS) on 9 March and this mission takes precedence over all other activity at Kourou.
Lift-off from the Kourou spaceport occurred at 18 hours, 50 minutes and 55 seconds local time (2150.55 GMT) - the instant needed to put the truck on the right path to catch the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday next week.
"That's the mission we want fulfilled and the satellite we will launch will be one major step towards that mission, " he said during a visit to Ariane's launch center in Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America, late last month.
The Ariane 44L rocket equipped with four liquid strap-on boosters -- the most powerful in the Ariane-4 series -- lifted off at 7:16 p.m. local time (2216 GMT) from the European Space Agency (ESA) launch center in Kourou, on the northeast coast of South America.
With all three vehicles, Arianespace, the company that runs Kourou, will now be able to offer satellite operators a ride for any type of spacecraft to all kinds of orbit - from the low, pole-crossing orbits used by Earth observation missions, to the high, geostationary locations favoured by big telecommunications platforms.
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