KOUROU, French Guiana -- The final mission of Europe's Ariane-4 rocket series placed a telecommunications satellite into orbit Saturday, ending a 116-launch career two weeks after the loss of the space shuttle Columbia.

Saturday's Ariane-4 flight was to have been a triumphant event, but the destruction of the Columbia on February 1 with its seven crew and problems with Ariane-5 have cast a shadow over space exploration.

The Ariane-4 rocket deployed the satellite for global operator INTELSAT after its launch had been delayed for three days due to bad weather, Arianespace officials said at the launch site in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America.

First launched in 1988, Ariane-4 had failed only three times. Since 1994, the rocket has had a streak of 74 consecutive successful launches.

Arianespace decided to stop production of Ariane-4 because the rocket can only launch communications satellite payloads with a maximum weight of five metric tons, seen as insufficient for current market demands.

It has been replaced by the more powerful Ariane-5 rocket series. But Ariane-5 has been grounded since a failure in December that destroyed two satellites worth over $600 million. That flight used the first version of Ariane-5 capable of launching payloads of up to 10 metric tons.

Arianespace president Jean-Yves Le Gall told reporters after Saturday's launch that December's failure would cost the European space program 300 million euros.

In 14 launches since 1996, four Ariane-5 rockets have failed.

The Ariand-4 rocket blasted off Saturday at 4.00 a.m. (0700 GMT) into a partly cloudy equatorial night sky. Initially slated for launch Wednesday, high altitude winds delayed the launch for three consecutive days.

Twenty-one minutes after launch the rocket released the INTELSAT 907 satellite into orbit.

This satellite will provide telecommunications to the Americas, Europe and Africa for Washington-based operator INTELSAT.

INTELSAT 907 weighed 10,000 pounds at launch and was built in California by Space Systems/Loral. Launch contracts for commercial satellites have decreased dramatically in the last 18 months on account of the global economic slowdown, over capacity in the telecommunications industry and soaring insurance rates spiked by the September 11, 2001, suicide attacks on the United States.(Reuters)