SSC
India's first human spaceflight programme is called:
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Answer: Option B — Gaganyaan
Detailed Solution
Gaganyaan ("sky vehicle") is India's first human spaceflight programme, being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech on 15 August 2018.
Aims of the Gaganyaan mission:
To send a crew of up to three Indian astronauts (called "Gagannauts" or "Vyomanauts") to a low Earth orbit of about 400 km for up to three days, and bring them back safely to Earth with a splashdown in the sea.
To show India's capability to carry out human spaceflight on its own. If successful, India will become the fourth country, after the Soviet Union (Russia), the USA and China, to send humans into space with its own rocket.
Key features:
- The rocket will be a human-rated version of the LVM3 (GSLV Mk III), called the HLVM3, made safer for carrying humans.
- The crew module will have a Crew Escape System to save the astronauts if something goes wrong during launch.
- Before the crewed flight, ISRO is carrying out uncrewed test flights, including one carrying a humanoid robot called "Vyommitra", and abort tests (the TV-D1 test flight was carried out in October 2023).
The four astronaut-designates selected from the Indian Air Force, announced in February 2024, are Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla. They trained partly in Russia.
In June-July 2025, Shubhanshu Shukla flew to the International Space Station on the Axiom-4 mission, becoming the first Indian to visit the ISS and the second Indian in space after Rakesh Sharma (1984).
India also plans to set up its own space station, the "Bharatiya Antariksh Station", by 2035.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Chandrayaan is India's Moon mission series; Chandrayaan-3 landed near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023.
- ✗Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission, 2013) made India the first country to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt.
- ✗Shukrayaan is ISRO's planned Venus mission.
Quick tip
Remember: Gaganyaan = India's first human spaceflight (announced 15 August 2018, HLVM3, crew of 3, 400 km orbit, robot Vyommitra); Shubhanshu Shukla = first Indian on the ISS (2025).
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Firsts in India & World — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Firsts in India & World, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the first persons and events in India and the world: the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize, the first woman to hold major offices, the first to climb Everest or reach space, and India's first institutions, newspapers, railways and satellites. It also covers the largest, longest, highest and smallest records in India and the world. These are pure memory questions, so revise them as short lists by theme: first women, first in sports, first in science and space, and first in governance. Be careful with the exact wording, such as 'first Indian' versus 'first person of Indian origin', or 'first woman President' versus 'first woman Prime Minister', since options are often designed to exploit this. Practise the firsts in India and the world questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.