The three-stage vehicle lifted off from Space Launch Complex 17A at 6:39 p.m. EDT, boosting Telenor's Hughes-built spacecraft into a geosynchronous transfer orbit.

"Today's success was the result of great teamwork involving Hughes, Telenor, the U.S. Air Force and the Delta II team," said Jay L. Witzling, McDonnell Douglas' division director for Delta II and Titan programs. "We are proud to have launched not only Thor II, but its predecessor Thor I, which now serves more than three fourths of the satellite dish receptors in Scandinavia," he said.

"The Thor II mission also was the first Cape Canaveral launch directed from the new operations building about four miles from the launch pad. To begin launching there in May of this year instead of August required a tremendous amount of coordination between McDonnell Douglas and the Air Force. The move wouldn't have been a success without the Air Force," said Rich Murphy, launch site director.

Prior launches were directed from the former blockhouse, which was built in the late 1950s to launch the Thor intermediate range ballistic missile, predecessor of Delta. The blockhouse had been upgraded and modified over the years to accommodate the evolving Delta vehicle.

"The Air Force did a great job with the new facilities. Everything worked as designed for the Thor II launch, and we look forward to using the new remote launch control system for years to come," Murphy said.

Air Force authorities connected 144 fiber optic cables between work stations in the new building and the launch pad to transmit command data to the rocket and receive vehicle status, telemetry and feedback information.

The Thor II, built by Hughes Electronics, is named for Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl. It will add up to 75 channels of television capacity to the Telenor communications system and has an estimated life span of 11 years. McDonnell Douglas contracted with Hughes Space and Communications International (HSCI) in 1995 for the launch of Thor II.

Telenor is a leading company in the growing satellite communications business in the Scandinavian region and in other worldwide markets. HSCI is a unit of Hughes Electronics, the world's leading manufacturer of commercial communications satellites. It has built 40 percent of those in operation. The earnings of Hughes Electronics are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to GMH (NYSE symbol) common stock.

McDonnell Douglas is the world's largest builder of military aircraft, and the third largest commercial aircraft manufacturer. Its Space & Defense Systems business is a world leader in space transportation, producing the Delta family of expendable launch vehicles. It manufactures major elements of the International Space Station as well as military command, control, communications, computer and intelligence (C4I) systems. The Delta II rocket is manufactured in Huntington Beach, Calif., and assembled in Pueblo, Colo.