The JCSAT-10 satellite successfully separated 27 minutes and seven seconds after liftoff from the Kourou space centre, followed by the French Syracuse 3B satellite at 32 minutes and 50 seconds.

The JCSAT-10 satellite was built by Lockheed Martin for Japan's JSAT corporation, and should ensure high definition television coverage for Japan, the Asia-Pacific region and Hawaii.

The Syracuse 3B, along with a sister satellite put into orbit last year, will help provide secure communications to the French military outside of France.

"This launch marks an important increase in the operational capabilities of our armed forces, particularly while they are deployed abroad," French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said in a statement.

The third Ariane space launch this year and the 172nd since the company was founded in the 1980s, it was the sixth flight of an Ariane-5 ECA rocket, a heavy-duty version of the European Space Agency's (ESA) workhorse Ariane-5 series capable of putting 10 tonnes into orbit.

"Tonight's success is particularly exemplary, and perfectly illustrates why we have launched a total of 237 satellites during the past 26 years -- which, by far, is a world record," Arianespace Chief Executive Officer Jean-Yves Le Gall said after the launch, according to a statement.

Arianespace's next launch is planned for mid-September, with another Ariane-5 carrying a US television satellite, an Australian communications satellite and an experimental Japanese satellite.

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