Europe's Arianespace company has signed a contract to launch the STENTOR telecommunications technology satellite for the French Space Agency (CNES) aboard its new generation Ariane5 rocket.

"The launch will be carried out by an Ariane-5 during the second quarter of the year 2000, from the Guyana Space Centre, in Kourou, French Guyana," Arianespace said.

"STENTOR will demonstrate new space-borne telecommunications capabilities, such as wideband and multimedia services beamed to miniature user terminals," it said.