ISRO & Space Missions — UPSC Static GK — UPSC Notes

🛰️ ISRO — Key Dates & Structure

Parameter	Detail
Founded	15 August 1969
Predecessor	INCOSPAR (Indian National Committee for Space Research) — 1962, under Vikram Sarabhai
HQ	Bengaluru, Karnataka
Parent body	Department of Space (DoS) — directly under the Prime Minister. NOT under Ministry of Science & Technology or DST.
First chairman	Dr. Vikram Sarabhai (1963–1971)
Current chairman	Dr. V. Narayanan (assumed charge 14 January 2025, succeeded Dr. S. Somanath)
Commercial arm	NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) — PSU under DoS for commercial space activities
Regulatory body	IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre) — authorises and promotes private sector space activities
Space policy	Indian Space Policy 2023 — issued April 2023; formalises role of private sector in space

🚀 Launch Vehicles

Vehicle	Full Name	First Launch	Status	Key Notes
SLV	Satellite Launch Vehicle	10 Aug 1979 (failed); success: 18 Jul 1980	Retired	First successful launch placed Rohini RS-1 in orbit (1980). India's first indigenous orbital launch vehicle. Designed by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
ASLV	Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle	1987	Retired	4 launches (1987–1994); only ASLV-D4 (May 1994) fully successful. Retired after 4th flight.
PSLV	Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle	20 Sep 1993 (failed); success: 15 Oct 1994	Operational (workhorse)	63+ launches as of early 2026; ~92% success rate. Launched Chandrayaan-1, Mangalyaan, Aditya-L1, AstroSat. Set record: 104 satellites in one mission (PSLV-C37, Feb 2017). PSLV-C62 (Jan 2026) failed.
GSLV Mk I/II	Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle	18 Apr 2001 (Mk I)	Operational (Mk II)	Mk I used Russian KVD-1 cryogenic stage. Russia backed out of tech transfer (1992) under US/MTCR pressure → India developed indigenous cryogenic engine (CE-7.5) for Mk II. Capacity: ~2,500 kg to GTO.
LVM3 (GSLV Mk III)	Launch Vehicle Mark-3	Dec 2014 (experimental); Jun 2017 (operational)	Operational (heavy-lift)	India's heaviest rocket — 4,000 kg to GTO. Indigenous CE-20 cryogenic upper stage. Launched Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3, OneWeb commercial missions.
SSLV	Small Satellite Launch Vehicle	7 Aug 2022 (failed); success: 10 Feb 2023 (SSLV-D2)	Operational (small sats)	Designed for quick turnaround (72 hours assembly vs months for PSLV). Payload: ~500 kg to LEO. Targets commercial small-satellite market.

🌙 Major Missions — Chronological

Mission	Date	Launched by	Key Significance
Aryabhata	19 April 1975	Soviet Kosmos-3M rocket	India's first satellite. Named after the 5th-century mathematician-astronomer. Launched from Kapustin Yar, USSR.
APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment)	19 June 1981	ESA Ariane-1 (French Guiana)	India's first experimental geostationary communication satellite. Successfully tested India's ability to build and operate GEO comsat.
INSAT-1B	30 August 1983	US Delta rocket	First operational satellite of the INSAT series (INSAT-1A had failed in 1983). Revolutionised Indian telecommunications and meteorology.
IRS-1A	17 March 1988	Soviet rocket (Baikonur)	India's first remote sensing satellite. Predecessor to today's EOS series.
Chandrayaan-1	22 October 2008	PSLV-C11	India's first lunar mission. Discovered water molecules on Moon via Moon Mineralogy Mapper (NASA M3) and CHACE spectrometer on Moon Impact Probe (MIP). MIP crash-landed at Jawahar Point. Contact lost Aug 2009 (all mission objectives met).
ASTROSAT	28 September 2015	PSLV-C30	India's first multi-wavelength space observatory. Studies universe in UV, optical, soft and hard X-ray bands simultaneously.
Chandrayaan-2	22 July 2019	GSLV Mk III-M1	Orbiter (still operational), Vikram lander (crashed 6 September 2019 due to software error), Pragyan rover. Orbiter has 8 payloads; continues remote sensing of Moon.
Chandrayaan-3	14 July 2023 (launch)	LVM3-M4	India's first successful soft landing on Moon. Landed 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST at Statio Shiv Shakti (69.37°S, 32.32°E) — near Moon's south pole. India = 4th nation to soft-land (after USSR, USA, China). Pragyan rover operated for 14 Earth days. Landing site officially named by IAU.
Aditya-L1	2 September 2023 (launch)	PSLV-C57	India's first solar mission. Reached L1 halo orbit on 6 January 2024. 7 payloads to study solar corona, solar wind, flares. L1 = first Lagrange point (~1.5 million km from Earth) — provides uninterrupted view of Sun.
XPoSat	1 January 2024	PSLV-C58	India's first X-ray polarimetry mission (only second globally after NASA's IXPE). Studies polarisation of cosmic X-ray sources — black holes, neutron stars, pulsars.
SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment)	30 December 2024 (launch)	PSLV-C60	India's first space docking mission. First docking achieved 16 January 2025 — India = 4th country to demonstrate space docking (after USA, USSR, China). Undocking: 13 March 2025. 2nd docking + power transfer: 20–21 April 2025. Technology essential for Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station.

🔴 Mangalyaan — Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)

Parameter	Detail
Launch	5 November 2013 (PSLV-C25)
Mars orbit insertion	24 September 2014
Cost	~₹454 crore (~USD 54 million) — cheapest interplanetary mission in history at the time
Significance	First Asian nation to reach Mars orbit. India was the first nation to succeed in its maiden attempt to Mars. (USSR, USA, and Europe all failed their first attempts.)
Mission end	Lost communication: September 2022 (battery depletion — no longer able to withstand prolonged eclipse periods)
Payloads	5 science instruments — Methane Sensor (MSM), Mars Colour Camera (MCC), Thermal Infrared Imaging (TIS), Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA)

👨‍🚀 Gaganyaan — India's Human Spaceflight Programme

Parameter	Detail
Programme announced	Independence Day 2018 (PM Modi's announcement)
Launch vehicle	LVM3 (GSLV Mk III)
TV-D1 (abort test)	21 October 2023 — Crew Escape System test at Mach 1.2, ~11.7 km altitude; successful
Selected astronauts (4)	IAF pilots: Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, Angad Pratap, Shubhanshu Shukla (trained at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Russia)
Shubhanshu Shukla — ISS mission	Selected for Axiom Space Mission 4 (Ax-4) to ISS; launched 25 May 2025 — first Indian to visit ISS
Uncrewed flight (G1)	Targeted 2025 (delayed)
Crewed flight	Now targeted 2027 (revised from earlier 2024/2025 targets)
Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS)	India's planned space station — first module targeted 2028; operational by 2035

First Indian in space: Rakesh Sharma — aboard Soviet Soyuz T-11 on 3 April 1984. When PM Indira Gandhi asked how India looked from space, he replied "Saare Jahan Se Achha" (from Iqbal's poem). He was an IAF pilot, not an ISRO astronaut — the mission was a Soviet-Indian joint mission.

🧭 NavIC — India's Navigation System

Parameter	Detail
Full name	Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC); also called IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System)
Designed constellation	7 satellites (3 geostationary / GEO + 4 geosynchronous / GSO)
Total launched (programme)	10 satellites: IRNSS-1A to 1I + NVS-01 (second generation)
Operational as of 2024–25	~5 (several first-gen satellites have degraded atomic clocks; NVS series replacing them)
Coverage	India and ~1,500 km beyond borders (regional navigation, unlike global systems GPS/GLONASS)
Accuracy	<20 m for standard users; <10 m for restricted service users
Services	Standard Positioning Service (SPS — civilian); Restricted Service (RS — encrypted, for defence)

🌕 Nations that Soft-Landed on the Moon (as of April 2026)

#	Country	First Soft Landing	Mission
1	USSR	February 1966	Luna 9
2	USA	June 1966	Surveyor 1
3	China	December 2013	Chang'e 3 / Yutu rover
4	India	23 August 2023	Chandrayaan-3 / Vikram lander
5	Japan	January 2024	SLIM (Smart Lander for Investigating Moon)

⚠️ Exam Traps

Trap	Correct Answer
ISRO is under DST (Dept. of Science & Technology)?	No. ISRO is under the Department of Space (DoS), which is directly under the Prime Minister. DoS is separate from DST (which is under the Ministry of Science & Technology).
When exactly did Chandrayaan-3 land?	23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST. The landing site is officially named Statio Shiv Shakti (IAU-approved). Located at 69.37°S, 32.32°E — near (but NOT at) the geographic south pole.
India was the first to land near the south pole of the Moon?	Contextually correct but nuanced. Chandrayaan-3 landed at ~69°S — the highest southern latitude ever for a lunar landing. It is near the south polar region but NOT at the geographic south pole (90°S).
India was the first country to reach Mars orbit?	No. USA, USSR, and ESA all reached Mars before India. India was the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit and the first country to succeed on its maiden attempt.
SpaDeX made India the 3rd country to dock in space?	No — 4th. Docking sequence: USA, USSR, China, then India (16 January 2025).
Chandrayaan-1 confirmed water on the Moon?	Yes, but note: the discovery was via the NASA M3 (Moon Mineralogy Mapper) instrument on board, and ISRO's own CHACE spectrometer on the Moon Impact Probe. Both Indian and NASA instruments contributed.
How many satellites does NavIC have — 7 or 9?	Designed for 7 (3 GEO + 4 GSO). 10 have been launched in the programme (including replacements and NVS-01 second-gen). Only ~5 were fully operational as of 2024–25. Distinguish "designed constellation" (7) from "total launched" (10).
Aryabhata was launched by ISRO/PSLV?	No. Aryabhata (1975) was launched by a Soviet Kosmos-3M rocket — India did not yet have its own orbital launch vehicle. PSLV's first successful launch was in 1994.
Rakesh Sharma was an ISRO astronaut?	No. Rakesh Sharma was an IAF pilot who flew on a Soviet Soyuz T-11 (3 April 1984) as part of a Soviet-Indian joint mission. He was not an ISRO-trained astronaut.
Aditya-L1 studies the Sun from L1 point — how far is that?	L1 (first Lagrange point) is approximately 1.5 million km from Earth (~1% of Earth-Sun distance). It provides a continuous, unobstructed view of the Sun. Aditya-L1 inserted into L1 halo orbit on 6 January 2024.
Was Mangalyaan (MOM) India's first interplanetary mission?	Yes. Chandrayaan-1 was a lunar (not interplanetary) mission. Mangalyaan was India's first interplanetary mission, launched November 2013, arrived Mars September 2014.
What is the difference between GSLV Mk III and LVM3?	Same rocket, different name. GSLV Mk III was renamed LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark 3) in 2022. The renaming reflects that it is a new class, not a variant of GSLV Mk I/II.

ISRO & India's Space Missions