Space Exploration and Astronomy

Mars Pathfinder was a NASA mission launched in December 1996 that successfully landed on Mars in July 1997. It included the Sojourner rover, the first wheeled vehicle to explore another planet. Voyager, Discovery, and Columbia were spacecraft with different missions - Voyager for outer planets, Discovery for various missions, and Columbia was a space shuttle.

This is a right answer.  Man used rockets to reach the moon because this is the only best suited means of transport that can reach the moon.

USA (United States) was the first country to send men to the moon with the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface. Russia (then USSR) had earlier sent unmanned probes and was first in space exploration but never landed humans on the moon.

The Soyuz TMA-14 mission carried Guy Laliberte to the ISS in September-October 2009. The mission commander was Gennady Padalka, a veteran Russian cosmonaut, and the flight engineer was Michael Barratt from NASA. The other options list astronauts from different missions or time periods - for instance, Sergei Revin flew on later missions, while Walter Cunningham was an Apollo-era astronaut.

Yes,  Halley's comet was last seen in 1986, this will next appear in after 76 years in the year 2062.

NASA's most important scientific instrument, the Hubble space telescope would begin to fail a few years from now, hence, this sentence emphasizes on its need to preserve this instrument. The clue comes from the word 'even', the clause that follows it provides an explanation to the blank. This implies that though tough tasks have to be undertaken, Hubble Telescope has to be preserved. Hence, (4) is the answer.

A low Earth orbit (LEO) is generally defined as an orbit below an altitude of approximately 2000 kilometres (1200 mi). The Iridium satellite constellation is a large group of satellites providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over Earth's entire surface. The constellation consists of 66 active satellites in orbit and additional spare satellites to serve in case of failure. Satellites are in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 485 mi (781 km).

NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is the United States government's civilian space program and aerospace research agency, established in 1958.

The outer surface of a space shuttle is not made of platinum.

EDUSAT, INSAT and IRS are artificial satellites.

The Rutan Voyager was the first aircraft to fly around the world without refueling in 1986. However, there's an error in the options - the question asks about the first non-stop flight, which was actually by a B-52 in 1957, but Voyager was the first without refueling (carrying all fuel onboard). The marked answer (Voyager) is correct for 'without refueling' in the sense of carrying all fuel from start.

Satellites are the most advanced development in communication technology. These are man made and have an artificial body . It is used to collect information from other planets. This is the right answer.

Russia launched the Long March 6 carrier rocket. 

The correct chronological order is Columbia (1981) < Challenger (1983) < Discovery (1984) < Atlantis (1985) < Endeavour (1992). Columbia was first, followed by Challenger's first flight, then Discovery, Atlantis, and finally Endeavour which was built to replace Challenger.

Isaac Asimov wrote the book “How we Found the Earth is Round”