An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from French Guiana on Friday, putting into orbit a Japanese civilian communications satellite and a French military communications satellite, officials said.
The launch took place at Europe's space base in Kourou, on the northeast coast of South America, at 7:15 p.m. (6:15 p.m. ET).
Twenty-seven minutes after the launch, the rocket released into orbit a JCSAT-10 satellite for Japan's JSAT Corp. Five minutes later the rocket released Syracuse 3B, a military communications satellite for France's Defense Ministry.
It was the third Ariane rocket launch this year.
Built in the United States by Lockheed Martin, the JCSAT-10 satellite was designed to broadcast high-definition television to the Asia-Pacific region.
It would be used for the "Sky Perfect TV" system that broadcasts 251 television channels, JSAT officials said.
The French Defense Procurement Agency said a dedicated military communications satellite network was necessary because satellites shared with civilian operators risked being immobilized by relatively unsophisticated means.
"The Syracuse system is dedicated to military missions with a protection against interference using high-grade electronics in the satellite and in ground stations that make it invulnerable," agency official Caroline Laurent told French radio.
Syracuse was built by a European industrial consortium headed by Thales Communications and Alcatel Alenia Space.