ESA Galileo Soyuz Rocket Launch Cancelled - Bad Weather

A Soyuz rocket carrying a pair of Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites lifts off from Europe'’s Spaceport in Sinnamary, 12km from Kourou, French Guiana on October 12, 2012

Foul weather has delayed the blast-off of two satellites for the Galileo navigation network, launch firm Arianespace said Thursday, as it announced 12 more launches starting next year to "step up" deployment of Europe's rival to GPS.

The liftoff of the fifth and sixth Galileo satellites, already delayed by more than a year, had been scheduled at 1231 GMT Thursday from the European space centre at Kourou in French Guiana on a Russian-made Soyuz rocket on Thursday.

But "unfavourable" weather intervened to cause an indefinite delay, Arianespace said in a statement.

"Another launch date will be decided depending on the evolution of the weather conditions in Kourou," it said.

Arianespace also announced it had signed a deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch 12 more satellites "from 2015 onwards", for the EU-funded Galileo network.

The staggered launches aboard dedicated Ariane 5 ES rockets would "step up the deployment" of the navigation system, the company said, without specifying over what period they would happen.

The 5.4-billion-euro ($7.2-billion) Galileo constellation is designed to provide an alternative in case of signal failure on the existing US Global Positioning System and Russia's Glonass, and will have search and rescue capabilities.