Science & Technology Quiz: Gaganyaan and Human Spaceflight

The correct answer is C, the human-rated LVM3. Gaganyaan will fly on the LVM3, the heaviest Indian launch vehicle, modified and certified for carrying human beings and then written as HLVM3. It is a three stage vehicle with two solid strap-on boosters, a liquid core stage and a cryogenic upper stage, and human rating adds wider structural margins, redundant systems and extra checks.

Option A, the PSLV-XL, is the workhorse used for remote sensing satellites and for Chandrayaan-1 and Mangalyaan, but it cannot lift a crewed spacecraft. Option B, the GSLV Mk II, carries communication satellites of about two tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit and is too small for this payload. Option D, the SSLV, is the small satellite launch vehicle meant for payloads of a few hundred kilograms. The LVM3 was earlier called the GSLV Mk III, which is why both names appear in question papers.

The correct answer is A, Rakesh Sharma. Rakesh Sharma, then a Squadron Leader in the Indian Air Force, became the first Indian in space on 3 April 1984. He flew on the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11 to the Salyut 7 space station under the Interkosmos programme and spent about eight days in orbit, and he was awarded the Ashoka Chakra.

Option B, Kalpana Chawla, was the first woman of Indian origin in space, but she flew for NASA in 1997, thirteen years later. Option C, Ravish Malhotra, was the backup cosmonaut for the same 1984 mission and trained alongside Rakesh Sharma but did not fly, which makes him the strongest distractor. Option D, Sunita Williams, is an American astronaut of Indian origin who flew long duration missions to the International Space Station. Only Rakesh Sharma flew as an Indian citizen representing India.

The correct answer is B, Soyuz T-11. Rakesh Sharma flew on Soyuz T-11, launched from Baikonur on 2 April 1984, and docked with the Soviet space station Salyut 7. The flight was part of the Interkosmos programme, under which the Soviet Union carried cosmonauts of friendly countries, and Sharma carried out experiments in biomedicine and remote sensing.

Option A, Vostok 1, carried Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, in April 1961. Option C, Apollo 11, was the American mission that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July 1969. Option D, Shenzhou-5, carried Yang Liwei in October 2003 and made China the third country to launch a human being into orbit on its own. Keeping these four spacecraft and their firsts apart is the point of the question.

The correct answer is B, the crew escape system. TV-D1, the first test vehicle abort mission, was launched from Sriharikota on 21 October 2023. A single stage test vehicle carried the crew module and the crew escape system to about transonic speed, the abort was commanded, the escape motors pulled the crew module clear, and the module came down under parachutes and was recovered from the sea.

Option A is wrong because the cryogenic stage was not part of the test vehicle at all. Option C is wrong because docking is being proved separately, notably through the SpaDeX experiment, and is not part of the first Gaganyaan flight plan. Option D is wrong because a lunar lander belongs to the Chandrayaan programme and has nothing to do with this test. An earlier pad abort test in 2018 had already shown the same escape system working from a stationary rocket on the pad.

The correct answer is A, the crew module and the service module. The crew module is the pressurised double walled cabin where the astronauts live, and it is the only part that returns to Earth, protected by a heat shield and lowered by parachutes. The service module is an unpressurised section carrying propulsion, power generation, thermal control and other support systems, and it is separated before re-entry.

Option B, lander and rover, describes Chandrayaan-3, where Vikram and Pragyan worked on the Moon. Option C, orbiter and propulsion module, describes the earlier lunar missions, which had to place a spacecraft in lunar orbit. Option D is wrong because the cryogenic stage belongs to the launch vehicle and burns out long before orbit is reached, so it is never part of the spacecraft. Knowing which part comes back is the detail most often tested.

The correct answer is B, Bengaluru. The Human Space Flight Centre, set up in 2019 as the ISRO centre responsible for the Gaganyaan programme, works from Bengaluru, which is also the location of the ISRO headquarters, the U R Rao Satellite Centre and the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network.

Option A, Thiruvananthapuram, is the home of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, where launch vehicles are developed, and of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Valiamala. Option C, Ahmedabad, is the home of the Space Applications Centre and of the Physical Research Laboratory founded by Vikram Sarabhai. Option D, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, is the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the launch site, and Gaganyaan will lift off from there even though the programme is directed from Bengaluru.

The correct answer is A, a half-humanoid robot. Vyommitra, a name built from vyom for sky and mitra for friend, is a half-humanoid robot developed by ISRO to fly on an uncrewed Gaganyaan mission. It has a head, arms and a torso but no legs, and it is meant to sit in the crew seat, monitor cabin parameters, operate switches and report back, so that the systems a human crew will depend on are tested first.

Option B is wrong because the cryogenic engines of the LVM3 have their own designations. Option C is wrong because mission control works from the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network and the Mission Control Centre, not from anything called Vyommitra. Option D is wrong because the Indian crew's spacesuit is a separate development and carries no such name. Questions on this topic usually pair Vyommitra with the uncrewed test flights.

The correct answer is B, Yuri Gagarin. The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth once aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961, becoming the first human being in space. The day is now observed as the International Day of Human Space Flight, and the Russian training centre where Gaganyaan's astronaut-designates trained is named after him.

Option A, Neil Armstrong, was the first human to set foot on the Moon, during Apollo 11 in July 1969, which is a different first. Option C, Valentina Tereshkova, became the first woman in space in June 1963 aboard Vostok 6. Option D, Alan Shepard, was the first American in space, on a suborbital flight in May 1961, a few weeks after Gagarin, and later walked on the Moon with Apollo 14. Papers often mix the first in space with the first on the Moon.

The correct answer is C, China. China launched Yang Liwei aboard Shenzhou-5 in October 2003, becoming the third country after the Soviet Union and the United States to send a human into orbit on its own rocket and spacecraft. China has since built its own space station, and its astronauts are called taikonauts.

Option A, Japan, and Option B, France, have sent astronauts to space, but always on Soviet, Russian, American or European missions, not on national crewed spacecraft. Option D, India, has not yet flown a crewed mission of its own; Gaganyaan is intended to be that first flight, and Rakesh Sharma's 1984 flight was on a Soviet spacecraft. The question tests independent capability, not whether a citizen of the country has ever been to space.

The correct answer is B, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. All Indian orbital launches, including the PSLV, GSLV and LVM3 flights, lift off from Sriharikota on the Andhra Pradesh coast, which has two operational launch pads. The site was renamed after Satish Dhawan, a former chairman of ISRO, and the TV-D1 abort test of 2023 also flew from there.

Option A, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, develops launch vehicles and is not a launch site for orbital missions. Option C, the Space Applications Centre, works on payloads and satellite applications. Option D, the U R Rao Satellite Centre, builds and tests satellites. All three are ISRO centres, so the question rewards knowing which centre does what, and the coastal location of Sriharikota also matters because spent stages fall safely into the sea.

The correct answer is B, the first woman of Indian origin to travel into space. Born at Karnal in Haryana, Kalpana Chawla studied aeronautical engineering, moved to the United States and joined NASA, flying first on the shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist. She died along with her six crewmates when Columbia disintegrated during re-entry on 1 February 2003.

Option A is wrong because she never commanded a space station, and no Indian has done so. Option C is wrong because she did not perform a spacewalk; among people of Indian origin, Sunita Williams is known for long spacewalk records. Option D is wrong because the four astronaut-designates announced for Gaganyaan in February 2024 were all Indian Air Force test pilots and Kalpana Chawla died long before the programme was announced.

The correct answer is A, Bharatiya Antariksh Station. When the government set longer term goals for the space programme in 2023, it named an Indian space station, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, and an Indian crewed landing on the Moon. Gaganyaan is the first step towards both, because the same technologies of life support, docking, re-entry and recovery are needed.

Option B is wrong because Gaganyaan is the name of the crewed flight programme and its spacecraft, not of a station. Option C is wrong because Aryabhata was India's first satellite, launched in 1975 with Soviet help. Option D is wrong because the name Vikram, after Vikram Sarabhai, was given to the Chandrayaan-3 lander and to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. Attaching each name to the right object is exactly what this kind of question checks.