The anticipated December 26 launch of the European Space Agency's Galileo spacecraft has been bumped back a few days... and it's not the spacecraft's fault.

"Following a request from its sponsor (the ESA), the launch has been put back from December 26 to December 28," said Roskosmos spokesperson Vyacheslav Davidenko, quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency.

An "anomaly" with the ground station network set up to monitor the civil navigation satellite -- the first of two planned in the joint venture between the ESA and the Roskomos Russian Space Agency -- has forced the ESA to request the short delay.

"The necessary reconfiguration and validation are currently predicted to lead to a delay of at least two days for this launch, originally scheduled to take place on 26 December," the ESA said in a statement on the organization's website.

Including Galileo, four satellites will be launched towards an ultimate goal of 30. According to media reports, the navigational satellites will both complement and compete with the US's Global Positioning System, and the Russian Glonass network.

The system is expected to be in full operation after 2008.

FMI: www.esa.int