PARIS—A technical hitch scrubbed the launch of an Ariane rocket carrying a British military satellite and a Turkish telecoms satellite hours before its scheduled blastoff, the Arianespace rocket launch company said on Friday.
"During final pre-launch checks for the Ariane 5 ECA's mission with Skynet 5C and Turksat 3A, the result of a launcher software test was not nominal," the company said in a statement issued from its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America.
"Therefore, Arianespace has decided to stop the launch countdown," it said.
The company said a new launch date would be announced "as soon as possible."
The Ariane-5 rocket was to have launched Skynet 5C for Britain's ministry of Defence and Turksat 3A for Turkish telecoms operator Turksat.
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