CAYENNE, French Guiana (AP) - A European space consortium rocket loaded with two satellites blasted off Saturday evening from a launch pad in South America, despite rainy conditions at liftoff.

The Ariane-5 rocket cruised through cloudy skies under the power of its cryogenic main engine and two boosters. It blasted off from the Kourou launch center, about 40 miles from French Guiana's capital of Cayenne, at about 6:10 p.m.(2210 GMT).

Reaching an altitude of about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles), the rocket released Mexico's Satmex 6 satellite about 27 minutes after takeoff. The release of the Thaicom 6 satellite, for a Thai private telecommunications operator, followed five minutes later - completing the launch.

The blastoff was originally scheduled for Friday but was postponed because of equipment alerts.

The Ariane's payload was its heaviest yet, said Jean-Yves Le Gall, chief executive officer of the commercial launch services company.

''We will do better soon,'' Le Gall said.

The Ariane-5 deployed satellites for recently privatized Satelites Mexicanos (Satmex), the leading satellite telecommunications provider in Latin America, and for Shin Satellite Public Company Limited, which operates satellite communications services over Asia, Europe, Australia and Africa.

Arianespace, the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency, has scheduled four more Ariane rockets to launch this year, the next one in August. The company is also building a launch pad for Russian Soyuz rockets in Kourou, and the first Soyuz takeoff is set for November 2008.

The launch of the Ariane 5 rocket on Saturday was the second of 2006 and the 23rd successful flight for Ariane launchers, a company statement said. In nine months, a total of six Ariane 5 rockets have been used by Arianespace to deliver a total of 11 satellites into geostationary transfer orbit.