Sharjah 24 – AFP: The European Space Agency's JUICE space probe successfully launched Friday on a mission to discover whether Jupiter's icy moons are capable of hosting extraterrestrial life in their vast, hidden oceans.
The launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana came after a previous attempt on Thursday was called off due to the risk of lightning.
Despite cloudy skies, the rocket took off as planned at 09:14 am local time (1214 GMT) on Friday, as guests including Belgium's King Philippe watched from the Guiana Space Centre.
A little under half an hour later, the uncrewed six-tonne spacecraft separated from the rocket at an altitude of 1,500 kilometres (930 miles), which prompted an outbreak of applause at the centre.
Stephane Israel, the CEO of French firm Arianespace in charge of the rocket, said the launch was "a success".
After a few tense minutes, ground control were relieved to receive the first signal from spacecraft.
The spacecraft then began unfurling its array of solar panels, which are a record 85 square metres, the size of a basketball court. It will need all the energy it can get near Jupiter, where sunlight is 25 times weaker than on Earth.
Carole Larigauderie, JUICE project head at France's space agency CNES, said the launch the beginning of a long journey which will "not be at all calm".
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