Europe will use its own lightweight rockets in the launching of small satellites instead of Russia's Dnepr and Rokot from 2010, Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency's (ESA), said on Wednesday.
"Starting from 2010, all small satellites will be launched atop the Vega rockets," Dordain was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
Europe's Vega launch vehicle will be designed early next year and the first rocket is expected to blast off in mid-2010, Dordain said, adding that Russian rockets will send two more European research satellites into orbit this year.
The ESA's GOCE satellite, designed to measure and map the earth's gravitational field, was launched from Russia's Plesetsk cosmodrome on Tuesday.
According to a joint statement by the space agencies of Russia and Europe on Wednesday, they are planning to make their satellite navigation systems, GLONASS and Galileo, complement each other.
"Experts from the technical working group are expected to further work out the main compatibility problems between Galileo and Glonass," the statement said.