"During final tests in preparation for the launch, an anomaly appeared on ground equipment," it said in a press release, without disclosing the nature of the problem.

"As a result, Arianespace has decided to replace the equipment... The operation will take 24 hours."

The launcher, called the Ariane 5 ECA, designed to place payloads weighing up to 10 tonnes into geostationary orbit, suffered a catastrophic failure on its maiden flight in December 2002.

In 2003, the European Space Agency (ESA) stumped up 550 million euros in funds to fix the problem, blamed on a design flaw in its Vulcain-2 engine. The second flight has already been delayed several times.

Arianespace markets ESA's range of rockets for commercial launches.

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