PARIS, July 9 (Reuters) - Europe's Ariane 6 launcher

blasted off on a debut flight on Tuesday, restoring the

continent's independent access to space after delays, political

setbacks and debates over funding.

Standing 56 metres (184 feet) tall, Europe's newest uncrewed

rocket left the launchpad in French Guiana around 4 p.m. local

time (1900 GMT) at the start of a nearly three-hour flight

designed to end a year-long hiatus in European launches.

"Propulsion and trajectory are nominal," the mission's

launch director said in live pictures beamed to the headquarters

of the European Space Agency in Paris, where employees cheered

and applauded the lift-off.

The launch went ahead after checks showed a "small issue" in

a data acquisition system, pushing the beginning of a launch

window back by one hour.

The inaugural mission is not a commercial flight but if all

goes well, it is scheduled to deploy a handful of satellites and

experiments from European agencies, companies and universities.

Ariane 6 was developed at an estimated cost of 4 billion

euros by ArianeGroup, co-owned by Airbus and Safran. But its

arrival, originally due in 2020, has been repeatedly delayed.

Since the agency retired its workhorse Ariane 5 rocket more

than a year ago, Europe has had no independent means of sending

its satellites into space, while war in Ukraine has cut Western

ties to Russian Soyuz rockets and Italy's Vega C is grounded.

A new generation of small European commercial launchers

remains in early development mode.

GROWING COMPETITION

"Ariane 6 is fundamental for Europe's space ambition," Toni

Tolker-Nielsen, ESA's acting director of space transportation,

told Reuters from the control room at Europe's space port.

"It is about sovereign access to space for institutional

and governmental missions ... and this need has been even more

emphasized in view of the geopolitical situation."

Europe's temporary isolation in an increasingly global

space-launch market was exposed last year when European agencies

were forced to switch some payloads to the Falcon 9 rockets of

SpaceX in the United States.

Ariane 6 owes its existence to a decision by ESA's 22

nations in 2014 to develop a family of rockets in the face of

fierce competition from Elon Musk's private space venture.

The United States and dozens of other countries have come to

rely heavily on Falcon 9 for reaching orbit as everyday life on

Earth becomes increasingly reliant on satellite links and data.

ESA nations have launched an initiative to boost a growing

number of small-launcher projects that could pave the way for a

future private competitor to SpaceX and Ariane 6 itself.

"Ariane 6 is not quite there yet in terms of

competitiveness, but they want to get there," said Ian Annett,

former deputy CEO of the UK Space Agency.

If all goes well with its debut, Ariane 6 has about 30

customer missions to launch over the next several years.

That includes 18 launches for Amazon's Kuiper internet

constellation of thousands of satellites, one of a few planned

rivals to SpaceX's Starlink.