Europe's Galileo sat-nav launch delayed
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The launch of the first satellites in Europe's version of GPS has been delayed.
The flight to orbit of the Galileo spacecraft on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana was due to occur early on Thursday morning.
However, with just under three hours to the scheduled lift-off, the call was made to put back the launch by at least 24 hours.
The cause was an anomaly detected during the fuelling of rocket.
When it is finally up and running, Galileo will work alongside its American counterpart.
It is expected to improve substantially the availability and accuracy of timing and navigation signals delivered from space.
Users of its open service should get quicker, more reliable fixes and be able to locate their positions to within one metre compared with the current GPS-only error of several metres.
Galileo should have been operational by now but the project has run into myriad technical, commercial and political obstacles.
- Like Baikonur, Sinnamary has a large flame bowl under the pad
- A key difference is the mobile gantry, withdrawn prior to launch
- Soyuz receives a big boost by launching closer to the equator
- Rockets are brought to the pad along a 700m-long rail line
- The segments of a Soyuz are assembled in the MIK building
- Launch control is just 1km from the pad, in a secure bunker
- Other buildings on the 120ha site include propellant storage areas
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