Photos from Thursday's launch of Sentinel 1A

Europe's first Sentinel satellite blasted off Thursday and deployed its radar antenna and solar panels overnight, inaugurating a multi-billion dollar series of satellites to take the pulse of Earth's land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere with unmatched regularity.

Fitted with a C-band radar antenna, the $383 million Sentinel 1A satellite launched at 2102:26 GMT (5:02:26 p.m. EDT; 6:02:26 p.m. local time) from the Guiana Space Center on South American's northern coastline.

A Russian Soyuz rocket boosted the spacecraft north from French Guiana, streaking through low-level clouds and into the upper atmosphere as ground-based tracking cameras recorded dazzling views of the 151-foot-tall launcher shedding its boosters and disappearing into the evening sky.

The Soyuz rocket's Fregat upper stage ignited for a 10-minute firing to put the Sentinel 1A spacecraft into a 425-mile-high orbit over Earth's poles.

See our Mission Status Center for the latest news on the mission.

Photo credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

Photo credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

Photo credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

Photo credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace - Photo Optique Video du CSG

Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace - Photo Optique Video du CSG - P. Baudon

Photo credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

Photo credit: ESA/S. Corvaja