(Kang Xi winter of early f), December 24, 1979, Western Europe, the joint launch of the Ariane rocket successfully.

1979 December 24, 2011 18 13 pm (Paris time), Western Europe's Ariane rocket was successfully launched at the Kourou launch site in French Guiana.
French President Giscard d'Estaing immediately after the successful launch of the rocket sent a telegram to the French National Centre for Space Studies is responsible and the person concerned warmly congratulated. The message said: "This achievement is the result of exemplary cooperation between France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, and their European partners. (Lsjt.org)
"Ariane" rocket is a 3-stage rocket, 47.7 meters high and weighs more than 200 tons of rocket thrust of 245 tons. The launch is scheduled in 1981 in order to identify the performance of this rocket launches first test. Prior to launch, the launch of the Ariane rocket has twice postponed due to a technical fault.
rocket is manufactured by the European Space Agency. In order to break the monopoly of the United States and the Soviet Union to launch a geosynchronous satellite technology, the 1972 French initiative of the Western European countries to cooperate to develop its own heavy-lift rocket to get the endorsement and support of the 10 Western European countries such as West Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain, and jointly involved in the development, which France took on about 64% of the development cost.