A television grab from Indian channel NDTV of the PSLV-C25 launch vehicle carrying the Mars Orbiter probe as its payload lifts off from the launch pad in Sriharikota. (Credit: AFP)

India on November 5 launched its first spacecraft bound for Mars, a complex mission that it hopes will demonstrate and advance technologies for space travel.

Hundreds of people watched the rocket carrying the Mars spacecraft take off from the east-coast island of Shriharikota and streak across the sky.

The 1,350-kilogram Mangalyaan orbiter was headed first into an elliptical orbit around Earth, after which a series of technical maneuvers and short burns will raise its orbit before it slingshots toward Mars.

Mangalyaan, which means "Mars craft" in Hindi, must travel 780 million kilometres over 300 days to reach an orbit around the red planet next September.

India is aiming to follow the Soviet Union, United States and Europe in having a successful visit to Mars.

Decades of space research has allowed India to develop satellite, communications and remote sensing technologies that are helping to solve everyday problems at home, from forecasting where fish can be caught by fishermen to predicting cataclysmic storms and floods.

(Nhandanonline)