March 6 (Reuters) - Europe's newest uncrewed heavy

launcher blasted off on a delayed mission to carry a French

military observation satellite towards orbit on Thursday in its

first commercially operational launch.

The Ariane 6 rocket lifted from Europe's spaceport in

Kourou, French Guiana, at 1:24 p.m. local time (1624 GMT), live

webcast images showed, following two earlier postponements.