The 25-and-a-half hour countdown for the launch of the national space agency ISRO’s most powerful ever rocket GSLV Mark-III-D1 starts tomorrow. The Launch Authorization Board and the Mission Readiness Committee of the ISRO have given permission for the countdown to start at 3:58 pm on Sunday.

The launch vehicle is set to place the nation’s 3136-kg communications satellite GSAT-19 in a Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit after its lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikotta at 5.28 pm on Monday. This would be the first developmental flight of the heavy lift launch vehicle GSLV Mark-III that can carry 4-ton class satellites into the 36000 kilometre geostationary orbits. The three stage launch vehicle is to be powered at the third stage of its ignition by the indigenous cryogenic upper stage, named as C25.