Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket successfully carried out its first commercial mission on Thursday, placing a French military satellite into orbit to give the continent a new independent access to space.

Launch of European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket Watch live launch coverage from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana of the European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket. This is the first commercial flight of Ariane 6,

The rocket lifted off at 13:24 local time (17:24 CET) from the Kourou launch site in the French overseas department of French Guiana, according to the European space company Arianespace. The flight went according to plan and the rocket deployed its payload, the French military's CSO-3 satellite.