ISRO and India's Space Programme: Missions and Facts

The correct answer is B, Vikram Sarabhai. He chaired the Indian National Committee for Space Research set up in 1962, chose Thumba for the first sounding rocket launches and argued that a poor country needed space technology for communication, education and weather rather than for prestige. Option A is wrong because Homi J. Bhabha built the atomic energy programme, although the early space work was placed under his department. Option C is wrong because Satish Dhawan led ISRO after Sarabhai and the launch range at Sriharikota is named after him. Option D is wrong because U. R. Rao led the team that built Aryabhata and the satellite centre at Bengaluru carries his name. All four names appear in the options, so the exact contribution must be remembered.

The correct answer is B, 1969. ISRO was formed on 15 August 1969, taking over the work of the committee that had been running the programme. Option A is wrong because 1962 is the year in which the Indian National Committee for Space Research was set up under the Department of Atomic Energy with Vikram Sarabhai as chairman. Option C is wrong because 1972 is the year in which the Government created the Space Commission and the Department of Space, under which ISRO has worked since then. Option D is wrong because 1975 is the year of Aryabhata, India's first satellite. These four years are offered together in almost every question on the subject, so each must be tied to its own event. The date is easy to hold in memory because it falls on Independence Day, which papers sometimes use as the hint in the question itself.

The correct answer is C, Aryabhata. It was launched on 19 April 1975 from a Soviet launch site, was named after the astronomer of the fifth century and carried experiments in astronomy and solar physics. Option A is wrong because Bhaskara was the earth observation satellite that followed it. Option B is wrong because Rohini was the satellite placed in orbit in 1980 by the SLV-3, the first Indian launch vehicle, which is a different record. Option D is wrong because APPLE was an experimental communication satellite of the early 1980s, remembered for the photograph in which it was moved on a bullock cart. The trap in this question is the pair of 1975 and 1980, so read whether the question asks about the satellite or about the launch vehicle.

The correct answer is B, Rohini. The SLV-3 placed it in orbit on 18 July 1980 from Sriharikota, with A. P. J. Abdul Kalam as the mission director, and the flight made India a country able to launch its own satellites. Option A is wrong because Aryabhata, launched in 1975, went up on a Soviet rocket. Option C is wrong because INSAT-1A was a communication satellite of the early 1980s launched from abroad, as the heavier Indian launchers did not yet exist. Option D is wrong because IRS-1A, the first Indian remote sensing satellite of 1988, was also launched with foreign help. The wording of such questions turns on the phrase by an Indian launch vehicle. The SLV-3 was a four-stage solid rocket and its success placed India among the handful of countries with their own launch capability.

The correct answer is C, Bengaluru. The headquarters of ISRO and of the Department of Space are at Bengaluru, where the U R Rao Satellite Centre and the telemetry and tracking network ISTRAC are also located. Option A is wrong because New Delhi holds the ministries but not the headquarters of ISRO. Option B is wrong because Ahmedabad has the Space Applications Centre, which builds payloads and develops the uses of space data, and also IN-SPACe, the body that regulates private activity in space. Option D is wrong because Thiruvananthapuram has the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, where launch vehicles are designed. Matching centres with cities is the commonest question from this topic, so learn the table rather than single names. The Department of Space reports directly to the Prime Minister, which is a further fact set as a question on its own.

The correct answer is A, Sriharikota, an island on the coast of Andhra Pradesh, from which PSLV, GSLV and LVM3 flights take off. Option B is wrong because Thumba, near Thiruvananthapuram, is the equatorial station from which the first sounding rocket was launched on 21 November 1963, and it is not used for satellite launches. Option C is wrong because Hassan in Karnataka has the Master Control Facility, which controls communication satellites once they are in orbit. Option D is wrong because Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu is where liquid and cryogenic engines are tested. The question is made harder by offering four real ISRO places, so each place must be tied to its own function. Sriharikota was chosen because it lies close to the equator and has the sea to the east, so spent stages fall into open water.

The correct answer is B, evidence of water molecules on the Moon. Chandrayaan-1 was launched in 2008, carried the Moon Impact Probe and instruments from several countries, and its data showed the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface, which changed the understanding of the Moon. Option A is wrong because photographs of the far side were taken much earlier by Soviet and American spacecraft. Option C is wrong because helium-3 is discussed as a possible lunar resource but was not a discovery of this mission. Option D is wrong because the soft landing near the south pole was made by Chandrayaan-3 in 2023; Chandrayaan-1 was an orbiter with an impact probe and was never meant to land. The mission was launched by a PSLV and its data are still used by scientists studying the minerals of the lunar surface.

The correct answer is B, 2014. The spacecraft was launched by a PSLV in November 2013 and entered the orbit of Mars on 24 September 2014, which made India the first country to succeed at Mars on its first attempt and the first in Asia to reach Mars orbit. Option A is wrong because 2013 is the year of the launch and not of the arrival, and this is the trap the question is built on. Option C is wrong because 2016 has no connection with the mission. Option D is wrong because 2019 is the year of Chandrayaan-2. Read carefully whether a question asks for the launch or for the arrival, because papers set both and the two years are different. The spacecraft was also called Mangalyaan and carried five instruments, among them a camera whose pictures of Mars were widely published.

The correct answer is C, the Sun. Aditya-L1 was launched in 2023 and was placed in a halo orbit around the first Lagrange point between the Earth and the Sun, a position from which the Sun can be watched without eclipses, and it carries instruments to study the corona, the solar wind and solar flares. Option A is wrong because the lunar missions are the Chandrayaan series. Option B is wrong because the mission to Mars was the Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan. Option D is wrong because a mission to Venus has been discussed but is not this one. The name is the clue, since Aditya is a name of the Sun, and the L1 in the title gives the position of the spacecraft.

The correct answer is A, Rakesh Sharma. He flew in 1984 aboard a Soviet mission under the Interkosmos programme and spent about a week in orbit, and his reply that India looked the best in the world from up there is often quoted. Option B is wrong because Kalpana Chawla, born in Haryana, flew as an astronaut of the American space agency and was of Indian origin but an American citizen at the time of her flights. Option C is wrong because Sunita Williams, also of Indian origin, flew for the same agency. Option D is wrong because Ravish Malhotra was the backup for the 1984 flight and did not go into space. The question turns on the difference between an Indian and a person of Indian origin.