A European Ariane-5 rocket succeeded in a second attempt to place into orbit communications and weather satellites from French Guiana.
The rocket took off just before midnight Irish time (2245gmt) from the European Space Agency's launch centre in Kourou, French Guiana. It lit up the clear equatorial night sky and was visible from the ground for two minutes.
The mission had been delayed for 24 hours when an electrical problem was detected during the final countdown.
Twenty-eight minutes after launch, the Atlantic Bird-1 satellite separated from the rocket. Eight minutes later, it released the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite into orbit.
MSG is designed to analyse atmospheric conditions, predict long term weather patterns and reduce storm warning times with greater accuracy than previous generation weather satellites.
