Full success

Yes. After 2 years, the qualification flight of the new Ariene 5 ECA is a success by Arianespace, ESA, and Europe. The most advanced european launcher managed to put into orbit the XTAR-EUR satellite and the MAQSAT-B2 satellite. The flight 164 got lift-off few minutes passed 22h CET after 70 minutes of delay over the planned schedule caused by a technical problem with the payload. This time the hold was at 56 seconds from ignition, like a typical action film. Because this was a test flight, they didn't want to take any extra risk, so they double-checked all the systems before restarting the countdown. The XTAR-EUR satellite was the first put into orbit 26 minutes after launch. This satellite is a joint venture of Loral Space & communications and Hisdesat. Its purpose is for some kind of gubernamental communication, military perhaps, covering an area from east Barzil to Singapore. The second satellite released is the MAQSAT-B2 meant to simulate the weight and size of the average communication satellite. This hardware also aimed to measure several parameters from the rocket during its mission (TMA) and record images (DVCAM). This satellite also carried an interesting experiement: the SLOSHSAT-FLEVO. The microsatellite Sloshsat-FLEVO (Facility for Liquid Experimentation and Verification in Orbit) is supported by the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory and the University of Groningen. This satellite will orbit the earth for several weeks carrying 33.5 liter of water in a tank of 86.9 liter in total. The goal is to test a fluid dynamic model in microgravity. Apart from the technologcal and commercial implications, I'm surprised they didn't use beer instead of water. By the way, the FLEVO name makes reference to the region of The Netherlands where this satellite was built, Flevoland. The overall experience was very positive. There were many persons attending the event and plenty of food too.