General Awareness · Physics

Space Exploration and Astronomy

4,144 Questions

Review significant milestones in space exploration, including artificial satellites, reusable space shuttles, and historic lunar landings. This topic also covers astronomical phenomena and telescopic observations. Such scientific general knowledge is commonly tested in SSC, railways, and banking examinations.

Space shuttle missionsArtificial satellitesLunar and planetary landingsSpace telescopes and observatories

Space Exploration and Astronomy Questions

Multiple choice

Which of the following was the first man made object to leave the solar system?

  1. Voyager I

  2. Voyager II

  3. Pioneer -10

  4. None of these
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
C Correct answer
Explanation

Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, was the first spacecraft to achieve solar escape velocity and travel beyond all the major planets. While Voyager 1 later overtook it and became the first to enter interstellar space, Pioneer 10 holds the distinction of being the first human-made object on a trajectory to leave the solar system. The correct answer is C, not the Voyager probes which came later.

Multiple choice

What is the name of NASA's probe that is expected to visit Pluto in 2016?

  1. The New Hope

  2. New Horizons

  3. Space Voyager

  4. Last Horizon
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was the first mission to Pluto. It launched in 2006 and performed its historic flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015 (not 2016, but close enough for when this question was written). New Horizons provided the first close-up images and data of Pluto and its moons.

Multiple choice

For which of the following laboratories did the European Space Angency take 25 years in making and spent about US $2 billion before its launch?

  1. British Laboratory

  2. European Laboratory

  3. European union Laboratory

  4. Columbus Laboratory
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The Columbus Laboratory was a European Space Agency project that took approximately 25 years to develop and cost around $2 billion. It's a science laboratory module attached to the International Space Station.

Multiple choice

Identify the part having an error.

  1. Scientists are exploring.

  2. the possibilities of

  3. providing oxygen

  4. for future inhabitants

  5. of space stations
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

'Possibility' should be used.

Multiple choice

Which of the following spacecrafts first landed on the moon?

  1. Apollo 10

  2. Apollo 11

  3. Sputnik

  4. Apollo 13
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Apollo 11 was the first spacecraft to land humans on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface while Michael Collins orbited above in the Command Module.

Multiple choice

First Successfully translantic balloon flight.

  1. P.B Shelley

  2. Larry Newman and Maxie Anderson

  3. Johnson

  4. John Right
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

Larry Newman and Maxie Anderson, along with Ben Abruzzo, completed the first successful transatlantic balloon flight in 1978 aboard the Double Eagle II. The other names are fictional or unrelated to ballooning.

Multiple choice

In 2010, where did Russia build a new Cosmodrome for its space launches and reduced its dependency on Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan?

  1. Astrakhan

  2. Irkutsk

  3. Kaluga

  4. Tomsk

  5. Vostochny
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

Russia began construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur Oblast, Far East Russia. This new spaceport was built to reduce Russia's dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which it had to rent after the Soviet Union's dissolution.