The World - News from Feb. 23, 1986
The European Space Agency, recovering from last September’s unsuccessful mission, sent two commercial satellites into orbit from the agency’s jungle space center in South America. After launching from Kourou, French Guiana, the three-stage Ariane-1 rocket put in orbit a French SPOT satellite for Earth observation and a Swedish Viking scientific satellite designed to study the Earth’s magnetic field and the aurora borealis, or northern lights. The launch was the 16th of an Ariane rocket and the 12th successful launch of the Ariane series; the 15th veered off course and was destroyed.
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