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India successfully launched its biggest ever rocket today in an effort to ramp up its ambitious space programme.

The rocket, designed to carry heavier communication and other satellites into higher orbit, blasted off from Sriharikota in the southeast state of Andhra Pradesh.

The launch was the next crucial step in India's space programme history, after the nation successfully put a satellite into orbit around Mars in September.

India today announced two more successes in its space program — launching the country's largest rocket and testing the re-entry of an unmanned crew module, part of India's quest to send humans into space

'This was a very significant day in the history of (the) Indian space programme,' Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K.S Radhakrishnan said from mission control.

ISRO scientists have been riding high since an Indian spacecraft successfully reached Mars on a shoe-string budget, winning Asia's race to the red planet.

Although India has successfully launched lighter satellites in recent years, it has struggled to match the heavier loads sent up by other countries.

The new rocket, weighing 630 tonnes and capable of carrying 4 tonnes, is a boost for India's attempts to grab a greater slice of the £190 billion ($300 billion) global space market.

The rocket was carrying the crew module and released it 78 miles (125km) above the Earth. The pod, meant for carrying two to three astronauts, splashed down in the Bay of Bengal 

India, which is striving to become a player in the multi-billion dollar space market, has successfully launched lighter satellites in recent years, but has faced problems sending up heavier payloads. Pictured is the GSLV Mark-III which launched today

'India, you have a new launch vehicle with you. We have made it again,' ISRO mission director Mr Somnath said.

'The powerful launch vehicle has come to shape, which will change our destiny... (by) placing heavier spacecraft into communications orbits.'

The rocket - officially named the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III - was carrying an unmanned crew capsule.

ISRO said this successfully separated from the rocket and splashed down in the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast 20 minutes after liftoff. 

ISRO says the crew capsule project would take at least another seven years to reach the point where an astronaut could be put into space.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the test mission as 'yet another triumph of (the) brilliance and hard work of our scientists' in a post on Twitter.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the test mission as 'yet another triumph of (the) brilliance and hard work of our scientists' in a post on Twitter

ISRO said the unmanned crew capsule successfully separated from the rocket and splashed down in the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast 20 minutes after liftoff

The GSLV MK-III rocket sits on launch pad at The Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island. The new rocket, weighing 630 tonnes and capable of carrying 4 tonnes, is a boost for India's attempts to grab a greater slice of the £190 billion ($300 billion) global space market

The 630-tonne Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (MK III) blasted off from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on this morning, the Indian space agency reported

India also as its sights on a low-budget missions to land on the moon and study the sun after its recent space successes. 

'The aim is three years from now, an Indian lander and Indian rover will land on the moon,' Mr Radhakrishnan said. 

'We have a programme to study the sun that is by putting a satellite into the sun-Earth Lagrangian point,' he said, referring to the position where the satellite, held by the pair's gravitational pull, can orbit with them.

India has come a long way since it began its space programme half a century ago when it set up the first rocket launch pad in a field in the southern state of Kerala. A church in a fishing village was the agency's main office.

The chairman said the agency was reaping the benefits of years of hard work, after sticking to its 'mantra of self reliance' rather than relying on other countries for assistance.

Western sanctions were slapped on India after it staged a nuclear weapons test in 1974.

ISRO also remained committed to its national mandate of benefitting the 'common man' - for example by launching Indian satellites that help with weather projections and disaster management - in a country with tens of millions of poor.

'Twenty-two years we worked on it (a launch vehicle for satellites and other craft) and we got it. We adapted and we improved,' said Mr Radhakrishnan.

'It was not a soft route, it was the hard route.'

The GSLV Mark-III rocket shoots skyward past a flock of geese, from the east coast island of Sriharikota

In September, India triumphed in its first interplanetary mission, placing a satellite into orbit around Mars. Scientists described the final stages of the Mars Orbiter Mission, affectionately nicknamed Mom, as flawless. An artist's impression of the spacecraft is pictured

A comparison of how much countries have spent on their attempts to reach Mars. Both Russia and the US failed their first attempts to Mars, while the Chinese mission to Mars, dubbed Yinghuo-1 mission failed in 2011 and the Japanese mission to Mars ran out of fuel