The World - News from May 18, 1988

A French-built Ariane 2 rocket blasted off from French Guiana on the northern coast of South America, successfully ferrying a satellite into orbit that will help beam the Summer Olympics around the world in September. The 162-foot, three-stage rocket, developed by the European Space Agency, carried an Intelsat 5 communications satellite, capable of carrying 15,000 telephone calls at once and two color television channels. It will relay TV coverage of the Olympics in Seoul to the Western Hemisphere. The satellite, owned by a 114-nation cooperative headquartered in Washington, was built by Ford Aerospace of Palo Alto, Calif.