After an “anomaly with the ground infrastructure” kept Telesat Canada’s Anik F2 satellite grounded during its third launch attempt July 16, the satellite finally took off from the Kourou, French Guiana, launch site at 8:44 p.m. EDT July 17, Arianespace officials said in a statement. The launch represented the 15^th successful mission of the Ariane 5G launch vehicle.

A Telesat Canada spokeswoman told Satellite Today that while some costs may have been incurred during the delays from the original launch date of July 12, the number was not immediately available. She said the delays will not have any impact on the satellite’s design life of 15 years, and the company expects to get the full life out of the satellite.

And although the satellite was launched successfully, two of the three delays were attributed to problems on the ground and, in the tight market for launch services, that could make the difference when companies are shopping for a launch-service provider. Arianespace competitor International Launch Services (ILS) may have used the delays as a strategic time to issue a press release today highlighting the fact it has been awarded 11 launch contracts this year from commercial and government entities, accounting for 73 percent of the contracts awarded this year. ILS said it is averaging one launch per month.