The farewell flight of the European “horse horse” rocket, Ariane 5, scheduled for Tuesday, was delayed by 24 hours due to bad weather, operator Arianespace said. The 117th and final flight of the Ariane 5 rocket, after 27 years of launches, is scheduled to take off from the European Space Base in Kourou, French Guiana, between 21:30 and 23:05 GMT.

“Due to high-altitude headwinds over the Guyana Space Center, Arianespace has decided not to start the final phase of pre-launch operations,” the French firm said. He added that the closest launch window is between 22:00 and 23:05 GMT on Wednesday, “depending on favorable weather conditions”.

Ariane’s final flight, whose launches have disrupted life on Kura for nearly three decades, was originally scheduled for June 16. It was postponed the previous day due to problems with the pyrotechnic lines in the thruster block of the rocket. The lines have since been changed. The final payloads on Ariane 5 are a French military communications satellite and a German communications satellite.

Able to withstand a much greater payload than its predecessor, Ariane 4, the appearance of the Ariane 5 in 1996 allowed it to gain a foothold in the European communications satellite market. It was supposed to be replaced by the Ariane 6 in 2020, but delays with this next-generation rocket have deprived Europe of the ability to launch heavy missions into space on its own.