Chennai, Sept. 3 -- The countdown for the launch of an Earth observation satellite aboard a GSLV rocket began at the spaceport of Sriharikota in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Thursday.

The GSLV-F17 is scheduled to lift off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 135 km east of Chennai, at 2.55am on Friday, carrying the Earth Observation Satellite-05 (EOS-05) into a sub-geosynchronous transfer orbit (Sub-GTO).

The 27.5-hour countdown for the mission began at 11.25pm on September 2, ISRO sources told HT.

Dubbed the 'eye in the sky' for its ability to monitor the Earth from an altitude of 36,000 km, the GSLV-F17 will be the 19th flight of the G...