A European space consortium rocket placed into orbit two telecommunications satellites for Mexico and Thailand after blasting off from French Guiana on Saturday evening.

The Ariane-5 rocket, designed to launch payloads of up to 10 tons, lifted off from the Europe's launch center in Kourou, about 40 miles from French Guiana's capital of Cayenne, at about 6:10 p.m.(2210 GMT).

Reaching an altitude of about 1,400 km, the rocket released into orbit Mexico's Satmex 6, a 5.7 ton satellite, about 27 minutes after takeoff.

Five minutes later, the rocket orbited the Thaicom 6 satellite, for a Thai private telecommunications operator, completing the launch.

Thaicom will provide telecommunications and television broadcasting throughout Asia, the Pacific, Europe and Africa.

The launch was originally scheduled for Friday but was put off because of equipment alerts.

Arianespace, the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, has scheduled four more Ariane rockets to launch this year.

The launch of the Ariane 5 rocket on Saturday was the second in 2006 and the 23rd successful flight for Ariane launchers, a company statement said.

Source: Xinhua