The European Space Agency (ESA) says the latest two satellites for Europe's version of the American GPS satellite navigation system are under control but not in the correct orbit.

The fifth and sixth satellites, Doresa and Milena, went up on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana on Friday.

"Observations taken after the separation of the satellites from the Soyuz VS09 [rocket] for the Galileo Mission show a gap between the orbit achieved and that which was planned," said Arianespace. It declined to comment on whether their trajectories could be corrected.