Cosmic cruises

Established in 1969 by Vikram Sarabhai, the Indian Space Research Organization (or ISRO, as it is popular) is headquartered at

• Bangaluru

• Kochi

• Vishakapathnam

• Delhi

The largest ISRO base, the ________________________ Space Centre, is the main technical hub for the development of the SLV-3, ASLV, and the PSLV series of satellite launch vehicles.

• Donald Trump

• Vladimir Putin

• Vikram Sarabhai

• Mahatma Gandhi

Named after an ancient Indian astronomer, the ________________________ was launched by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1975 from Kapustin Yar using a Kosmos-3M launch vehicle.

• Aryabhata
• Galileo
• Copernicus
• Bhaskara

________________________, a barrier island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh, houses ISRO’s primary launch centre.

• Chennai
• Kochi
• Visakhapatnam
• Sriharikota

India became the first nation to put a satellite into Martian orbit successfully in its first attempt, when ________________________ entered it on 24 September 2014.

• Chandrayaan
• Astrosat
• NavIC
• Mangalyaan

Launched via PSLV-XL on 28 September 2015, ________________________ is India’s first dedicated multi-wavelength astronomy mission. It has propelled India into the elite club of nations with their own space observatories.

• Astrosat
• INSAT-3B
• Mangalyaan
• Chandrayaan

In 1969, ________________________ was transferred to ISRO and headed India’s first SLV or satellite launch vehicle project.

• Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Dr. Homi Bhabha
• Dr. Rani Lakshmi Bai

• Dr. Vikram

Situated near the southern tip of the Indian mainland, ________________________ was ISRO’s first and only launch site till the Satish Dhawan Space Centre was established in Sriharikota in 1971.

• Thumba
• Kochi
• Mumbai
• Chennai

In 2009, ISRO developed ________________________, a Web-based 3D satellite imagery tool, basically an Indian incarnation of Google Earth.

• Bhuvan
• SkyMapper
• EarthView
• GeoMap

Three nations had soft-landed on the moon before India did with Chandrayaan-3 on 23 August 2023, but India’s was the first successful landing near the lunar ________________________ pole.

• south
• equatorial
• west
• east