Photos: Ariane 5 on its jungle launch pad with navigation payloads

Two astronauts working outside the International Space Station Wednesday installed a European Space Agency data relay antenna and connected four of six cables to partially power a new ESA experiment platform. They also removed two solar array handling fixtures to clear the way for a future power system upgrade.

The 81st flight of Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket delivered two satellites to geostationary orbit Thursday for Eutelsat and Intelsat, and these photos show the launcher taking off with nearly 3 million pounds of thrust.

A Russian cosmonaut, a German flight engineer and a NASA astronaut undocked from the International Space Station and plunged back to Earth overnight Wednesday, landing on the snowy steppe of Kazakhstan to wrap up a six-month mission.