The first commercial launch of the giant European rocket Ariane-5 has been set for December 10, when it is scheduled to place a research satellite in orbit, the rocket's operators, Arianespace, said Monday.
Ariane-5 got off to an inauspicious start when the rocket blew up on its first flight, on June 4 1996, because of a computer problem.
It has since undergone two successful "qualification" flights, but commercial missions have been delayed because of technical problems with the satellites due to be launched.
The December 10 launch, from the Kourou space centre in French Guiana, will take aloft a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite, the X-Ray Multimirror Mission (XMM).
XMM, placed in elliptical orbit between 7,000 and 120,000 kilometers (4,400 and 75,000 miles) around the Earth, will scan the universe for emissions of X-rays, which scientists hope will provide data on how stars and galaxies are formed.
Ariane-5 is a heavy lifter, designed to place payloads of up to 6.8 tonnes into geostationary orbits. Ariane-4, which carried out its 123rd mission last Saturday, has been in operation since 1988. It can carry payloads of up to 4.5 tonnes.
Arianespace, the marketing arm of the ESA, is owned by 12 European countries.
