Agnibaan SOrTeD, flown in 2024, is notable for which technological first?

The correct answer is B, Ahmedabad. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre, IN-SPACe, is an autonomous body under the Department of Space with its headquarters at Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the city where India's space programme itself began at the Physical Research Laboratory founded by Vikram Sarabhai. IN-SPACe authorises and supervises the space activities of private companies and lets them use ISRO's facilities. Option A is wrong because Bengaluru is the headquarters of ISRO itself, of Antrix Corporation and of NewSpace India Limited, which is why it is the common wrong choice here. Option C is wrong because Hyderabad is the home of the launch-vehicle start-up Skyroot Aerospace and of ISRO's Nuclear Fuel Complex neighbours, not of IN-SPACe. Option D is wrong because Thiruvananthapuram hosts the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, where launch vehicles are developed.

The correct answer is B, 2019. NewSpace India Limited was incorporated in 2019 as a public sector undertaking under the Department of Space, with its registered office at Bengaluru. It runs demand-driven missions, owns and operates satellites, has launch vehicles built by Indian industry and transfers ISRO's technology to private firms. Option A is wrong because 1992 is the year Antrix Corporation, the older commercial arm of the department, was set up; a question often pairs the two years to see whether a candidate can tell the two companies apart. Option C is wrong because 2020 is the year the space sector reforms were announced and IN-SPACe was created. Option D is wrong because 2023 is the year the Indian Space Policy was approved, which defined the roles of ISRO, NSIL and IN-SPACe.

The correct answer is B, Vikram-S. Vikram-S was built by Skyroot Aerospace of Hyderabad and flew a sub-orbital mission from Sriharikota in November 2022 under the name Mission Prarambh, which means beginning. It was the first rocket designed and built by an Indian private company to fly, and it is named after Vikram Sarabhai. Option A is wrong because Agnibaan, of Agnikul Cosmos, flew later, in 2024, although its SOrTeD flight set its own record for a single-piece three-dimensionally printed engine. Option C is wrong because the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle is ISRO's own rocket and its first developmental flight was in 2022 from Sriharikota. Option D is wrong because Rohini sounding rockets are ISRO's own series, flown since the early years of the programme.

The correct answer is A, Prarambh. Skyroot Aerospace named the maiden flight of Vikram-S Mission Prarambh, a Sanskrit word meaning beginning, because it was the first flight by a private Indian rocket. The vehicle rose on a sub-orbital path from a launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and carried three small customer payloads. Option B is wrong because SOrTeD, short for Sub-Orbital Technology Demonstrator, is the name of the Agnikul Cosmos flight of Agnibaan in 2024, a different company and a different year. Option C is wrong because Pragyan is the name of the rover carried by India's Chandrayaan missions to the Moon. Option D is wrong because Prathama is not the name of any Indian space mission, and is included only as a plausible-sounding distractor.

The correct answer is C, 1992. Antrix Corporation Limited was set up in 1992 at Bengaluru as a wholly government-owned company under the Department of Space, to market the products and services of the Indian space programme abroad, including launch services, satellite capacity and remote sensing data. Option A is wrong because 1969 is the year ISRO itself was formed, on the fifteenth of August. Option B is wrong because 1972 is the year the Space Commission and the Department of Space were created, which brought the programme under a department reporting to the Prime Minister. Option D is wrong because no space body of note was created in 2003; the next commercial body after Antrix was NewSpace India Limited in 2019, and the examiner's trap is to mix up the two companies and their years.