Europe's Ariane 6 stages first commercial launch

Europe's newest uncrewed heavy launcher blasted off on a delayed mission to carry a French military observation satellite towards orbit on Thursday in its first commercially operational launch.

The Ariane 6 rocket lifted from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 1:24 p.m. local time (1624 GMT), live webcast images showed, following two earlier postponements.