Liftoff of Arianespace's Ariane 4 rocket with N-SAT-110 aboard came at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (2300 GMT) from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana. Spacecraft separation was also on schedule about 20 minutes later.

"It's always a pleasure to have an on time and easy ride," Jacques Rossignol, Arianespace's chief operating officer, said after the launch.

The satellite now will undergo testing and check out of its systems and is expected to become operational in mid-November, according to Takao Veda, SCC executive vice president.

Marking the 99th time an Ariane 4 model has lifted off from the edge of the Amazon Jungle -- and the eighth launch of an Ariane rocket during 2000 -- the three-stage rocket streaked across a clear night sky on another apparently flawless mission.

For Friday night's flight the 180-foot-tall (55-meter-tall) Ariane 4 rocket used a pair of liquid-fueled rocket boosters to help carry the Japanese satellite into orbit.

The Ariane 4 family of rockets can be outfitted with various combinations of pairs of solid-fueled and liquid-fueled boosters. Friday night's launch was the 12th time an Ariane 4 was equipped with the two liquid-fueled boosters.

Arianespace was able to demonstrate its scheduling flexibility with this mission by re-configuring the rocket to handle N-SAT-110 when another satellite was not ready to launch as planned in early October.

By simply removing two solid-fueled boosters already on the rocket, Arianespace was able to easily accommodate the Japanese satellite and launch it without incident on Friday.

As for the next Ariane launch, Arianespace officials on Friday announced a change in their immediate plans.

"We had planned to launch Ariane 5 on October 31, but since one of the passengers is late we have decided to swap two flights and will be launching an Ariane 4 on October 27, the Europestar satellite," Rossignol said, noting that the next Ariane 5 mission likely is to occur in mid-November.