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ISRO launched the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in:
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Answer: Option B — 2008
Detailed Solution
Chandrayaan-1 ("Moon craft"), India's first mission to the Moon, was launched on 22 October 2008 by the PSLV-C11 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. It entered lunar orbit on 8 November 2008. The project director was Dr M. Annadurai, and G. Madhavan Nair was the ISRO chairman.
Chandrayaan-1 was an orbiter, which circled the Moon at an altitude of about 100 kilometres (later raised to 200 kilometres). It carried 11 scientific instruments: 5 from India and 6 from other countries, including the USA (NASA), the UK, Germany, Sweden and Bulgaria.
On 14 November 2008, it released the Moon Impact Probe (MIP), which crash-landed near the Moon's south pole. This made India the fourth country to place its flag on the Moon. The MIP site was named "Jawahar Sthal" (Jawahar Point), because it was Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday.
Its most important discovery was evidence of water molecules (water and hydroxyl) on the surface of the Moon, made by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument on board, announced in September 2009. The mission also produced a detailed chemical and mineralogical map of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-1 lost contact on 29 August 2009, after about 312 days in orbit, before completing its planned two-year mission, but it had achieved most of its scientific objectives.
Later Indian Moon missions:
Chandrayaan-2 (launched 22 July 2019 by GSLV Mk III): its orbiter is still working, but the Vikram lander crash-landed in September 2019.
Chandrayaan-3 (launched 14 July 2023 by LVM3): its Vikram lander made a soft landing near the Moon's south pole on 23 August 2023, making India the first country to land near the lunar south pole and the fourth to soft-land on the Moon. The landing site was named "Shiv Shakti Point", and 23 August is celebrated as National Space Day.
Chandrayaan-4 (a sample-return mission) and Chandrayaan-5 (with Japan, the LUPEX mission) have been approved.
Why not the other options?
- ✗2005 is incorrect.
- ✗2013 is when the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) was launched.
- ✗2019 is when Chandrayaan-2 was launched.
Quick tip
Remember: Chandrayaan-1 = 22 October 2008 (PSLV-C11), discovered water molecules (M3), Moon Impact Probe at "Jawahar Sthal"; Chandrayaan-3 = soft landing on 23 August 2023 (National Space Day).
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Space Technology & ISRO Missions — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Space Technology & ISRO Missions, 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 India's space programme: the history of ISRO, launch vehicles such as the PSLV and GSLV, satellites and their uses, India's missions to the Moon, Mars and the Sun, and major international space missions and agencies. Questions often ask when and from where a satellite or mission was launched, what it was meant to do, and which launch vehicle carried it. For example, Aryabhata was India's first satellite (1975), and Chandrayaan-3 landed near the Moon's south pole in 2023. New missions are launched every year, so pair these facts with recent current affairs. Practise the space technology and ISRO 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.