PARIS, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Space launch provider

Arianespace on Monday reaffirmed plans to stage the second

mission of Europe's Ariane 6 launcher before the end of the year

after a glitch that marred the inaugural launch was traced to an

"easily fixable" software fault.

Following lengthy delays, Europe's newest uncrewed rocket

blasted off on July 9 and successfully carried out a series of

trials. But the mission ended with the launcher coasting in

orbit without releasing its final batch of payloads.

Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel said the failure to stage a

third firing of the upper-stage Vinci engine, which resulted in

the final deployments being curtailed, had been traced to a

software flaw that would be repaired before the next launch.

In a separate statement, a task force of government agencies

and companies overseeing the introduction of Ariane 6, including

the European Space Agency and Arianespace parent ArianeGroup,

said there were "no showstoppers" to the next flight.

Ariane 6 was developed at an estimated cost of 4 billion

euros ($4.33 billion) by ArianeGroup, which is co-owned by

Airbus and Safran, in the face of competition

from Elon Musk's SpaceX which now dominates the launch market.