PHOTOS: Radar satellite launched by India's PSLV

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off Thursday with a radar imaging satellite, the country's first indigenous spacecraft designed to take pictures of the ground through clouds and in darkness.

The launch occurred at 0017 GMT Thursday (8:17 p.m. EDT Wednesday), or at 5:47 a.m. local time at the Sriharikota launch base on India's east coast. The facility is about 50 miles north of Chennai.

Photo credit: ISRO