A European Ariane 5 rocket sat poised for liftoff on a tropical launch pad Thursday nestled in the edge of the Amazon rainforest of South America.
The 180-foot-tall (55-meter) rocket, powered by twin solid rocket boosters and a hydrogen-fueled Vulcain 2 main engine, was set for launch at 2031 GMT (4:31 p.m. EDT) with the SGDC and Koreasat 7 communications satellites for the Brazilian government and KTsat, a South Korean telecommunications firm.
These photos taken Wednesday evening on the eve of launch show the Ariane 5 at the ELA-3 launch pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.









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