The satellite navigation system BeiDou belongs to which country?
- A.Japan
- B.Russia
- C.China
- D.European Union
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, China. BeiDou is the Chinese global navigation satellite system, built in phases and now offering worldwide coverage, and the name is the Chinese term for the constellation of the Big Dipper.
Option A, Japan, operates QZSS, the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, which like NavIC is regional rather than global. Option B, Russia, operates GLONASS, the successor of the Soviet system of the same design. Option D, the European Union, operates Galileo, a civil global system deliberately kept outside military control. Add GPS of the United States and India's NavIC and the list is complete, with only NavIC and QZSS being regional. Examiners ask this as a simple pair matching question, so learn the five names with their owners, and remember that the general term for all of them is a global navigation satellite system.
Read the full article: Indian Satellites and NavIC: Series, Firsts and MCQs
Practice Questions
View allWhich was India's first satellite and in which year was it launched?
- A.Rohini, 1980
- B.Aryabhata, 1975
- C.Bhaskara-1, 1979
- D.APPLE, 1981
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It was launched on 19 April 1975 by a Soviet launch vehicle, since India had no vehicle of its own at the time, and it carried experiments in X-ray astronomy, solar physics and the ionosphere.
Read the full explanation →What does NavIC stand for?
- A.Navigation with Indian Constellation
- B.National Voyage and Indian Communication
- C.Navigation Indian Coordinates
- D.Navigational Information Centre
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The name was given in 2016 to the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, IRNSS, when the seventh satellite of the constellation was placed in orbit, and the word navik also carries the sense of a sailor or navigator, which is why it was chosen.
Read the full explanation →The NavIC constellation was designed with how many satellites?
- A.Four
- B.Seven
- C.Nine
- D.Twenty-four
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The system was designed as a constellation of seven satellites, three of them in geostationary orbit and four in geosynchronous orbits inclined to the equatorial plane, a small number being enough because the service area is regional and not global.
Read the full explanation →Which was India's first satellite dedicated exclusively to meteorology?
- A.INSAT-1B
- B.Kalpana-1
- C.Bhaskara-2
- D.Oceansat-1
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Launched in 2002 as METSAT, it was the first Indian satellite built only for weather work, and it was renamed Kalpana-1 in memory of Kalpana Chawla, the India-born astronaut who died in the Columbia accident of 2003.
Read the full explanation →Astrosat, launched in September 2015, was India's first satellite of which kind?
- A.Radar imaging satellite
- B.Dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory
- C.Navigation satellite
- D.Educational satellite
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Astrosat was launched on 28 September 2015 by a PSLV and carries instruments that observe the same cosmic source in the ultraviolet, the visible and the X-ray bands at the same time, which is what multi-wavelength means and what makes the mission unusual among space telescopes of its size.
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