Ariane 6 rocket puts EU satellites in orbit

Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket successfully placed two satellites into orbit to join the EU’s rival to the GPS navigation system on Wednesday after the mission blasted off from French Guiana.

It was the fourth commercial mission of the Ariane 6 launch system since the long-delayed single-use rockets came into service last year.

The rocket launched into cloudy skies from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou on the northeastern coast of South America at 2:01 am local time (0501 GMT).

It was carrying two more satellites of the European Union’s Galileo program, a global navigation satellite system that aims to make the bloc less dependent on the US’s Global Positioning System (GPS).

Applause rang out at the spaceport minutes before 7:00 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) as it was confirmed that the satellites had been successfully deployed into orbit 23, 000 kilometers (14,000 miles) above Earth’s surface.

They will bring to 34 the number of Galileo satellites in orbit.

This addition will also “improve the robustness of the Galileo system by adding spares to the constellation to guarantee the system can provide 24/7 navigation to billions of users,” according to the European Space Agency (ESA) which oversees the program.