The 27-hour countdown commenced on Tuesday for ISRO’s historic 100th mission—-launch of a Navigation satellite onboard a GSLV rocket— from this spaceport, sources in the space agency said. Also, this would be the first mission for ISRO Chairman V Narayanan, who assumed office on January 13.

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with indigenous Cryogenic upper stage in its 17th flight, carrying the navigation satellite NVS-02 is scheduled for lift-off at 6.23 am on January 29 from the second launch pad here.

The navigation satellite is the second in the series of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) aimed to provide accurate position, velocity and timing to users in the Indian sub-continent as well as to regions about 1,500 km beyond the Indian land mass.

“The 27.30 hour countdown commenced at 02.53 am on Tuesday,” multiple sources told PTI.

-PTI