Daily Static Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
Aditya-L1 was launched on 2 September 2023 by PSLV-C57 and inserted into a halo orbit around L1 on 6 January 2024; L1 lies about 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun and gives uninterrupted solar viewing. L2 lies on the far side of Earth from the Sun and hosts telescopes such as JWST, while sun-synchronous and geostationary transfer orbits are Earth-centred and unsuitable for continuous solar observation.
- PSLV is a four-stage vehicle that uses alternating solid and liquid propulsion stages.
- The third stage of GSLV Mk II is a cryogenic stage using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
- LVM3 has no cryogenic stage and uses only solid and liquid stages.
- The first stage of SSLV uses liquid propellant.
Statement 1 is correct — PSLV runs solid → liquid → solid → liquid. Statement 2 is correct — GSLV Mk II uses the indigenous CE-7.5 cryogenic upper stage (CUS). Statement 3 is incorrect — LVM3 (earlier GSLV Mk III) has S200 solid boosters, an L110 liquid core and a C25 cryogenic upper stage powered by the CE-20 engine. Statement 4 is incorrect — SSLV has three solid stages and a liquid Velocity Trimming Module at the end.
- Aditya-L1
- Mars Orbiter Mission
- Chandrayaan-1
- Chandrayaan-3
The correct sequence is Chandrayaan-1 (October 2008) → Mars Orbiter Mission (5 November 2013) → Chandrayaan-3 (14 July 2023) → Aditya-L1 (2 September 2023). Option (a) swaps the two 2023 missions, though Chandrayaan-3 flew first. Option (b) places the Mars mission before Chandrayaan-1, and option (d) places Chandrayaan-3 before the Mars mission.
- Assertion (A): Sun-synchronous polar orbits are preferred for Earth observation satellites.
- Reason (R): In a sun-synchronous orbit, the satellite crosses a given latitude at the same local solar time on every pass, ensuring uniform illumination for repeated imaging.
A is correct — remote-sensing series such as Cartosat and Resourcesat are placed in sun-synchronous orbits, usually launched by PSLV. R is correct and explains A — a constant local solar time means shadows and lighting are comparable across images, so changes seen over time reflect the ground and not the sun angle. Geostationary orbit (about 35,786 km), by contrast, is used for communication and weather satellites because it keeps a fixed position over one longitude.
- XPoSat — PSLV
- Aditya-L1 — PSLV
- Chandrayaan-3 — GSLV Mk II
- NVS-01 (NavIC series) — GSLV
Pairs 1 and 2 are correct — XPoSat, India’s first X-ray polarimetry mission, went up on PSLV-C58 on 1 January 2024, and Aditya-L1 flew on PSLV-C57. Pair 3 is incorrect — Chandrayaan-3 was launched by LVM3-M4, the heavy-lift vehicle, not GSLV Mk II. Pair 4 is correct — NVS-01, the first of the second-generation NavIC satellites, was launched by GSLV-F12 in May 2023.
