National Space Day is celebrated on:
- (a)23rd May
- (b)23rd September
- (c)23rd August
- (d)23rd November
Correct — C, 23rd August. India observes National Space Day on 23 August because that is the date on which Chandrayaan-3's lander Vikram made a soft landing near the Moon's south pole, on 23 August 2023. With that touchdown India became the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon (after the USSR, the USA and China) and the first to land in the south-polar region. The Prime Minister announced 23 August as National Space Day soon after the landing, and the first National Space Day was observed on 23 August 2024 under the theme 'Touching Lives while Touching the Moon'.
- (a)23rd May — The date of the observance is fixed by the Chandrayaan-3 landing, and no milestone of that mission falls in May. 23 May carries no national space observance.
- (b)23rd September — No milestone of Chandrayaan-3 falls here — the mission launched on 14 July 2023, entered lunar orbit on 5 August 2023 and landed on 23 August 2023. The main international space observance, World Space Week, runs 4-10 October, which is also not this date.
- (d)23rd November — Only the day-of-month is right; the month is not. The trap in this question is that all four options share the 23rd, so a candidate who remembers 'the 23rd' but not 'August' can still be caught.
National Space Day is a commemorative day tied to a specific event: the Chandrayaan-3 soft landing of 23 August 2023. That is how most Indian national days work — the date is borrowed from the event it honours (National Science Day, 28 February, marks Raman's announcement of the Raman effect; National Handloom Day, 7 August, marks the 1905 Swadeshi movement). So the reliable way to remember 23 August is to remember the landing, not the day.
Chandrayaan-3 launched on 14 July 2023 on an LVM3-M4 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, entered lunar orbit on 5 August, and its lander Vikram touched down on 23 August 2023; the rover Pragyan then rolled out and worked through one lunar day. The landing site was named 'Shiv Shakti Point'. Since every option in this question is a 23rd, the question is really testing whether the landing date is stored precisely.
- National Space Day — 23 August; first observed on 23 August 2024
- It marks Chandrayaan-3's soft landing near the Moon's south pole on 23 August 2023
- India became the 4th country to soft-land on the Moon and the 1st to do so in the south-polar region
- Chandrayaan-3: launched 14 July 2023 on LVM3-M4 from Sriharikota; lander Vikram, rover Pragyan; landing site named Shiv Shakti Point
- Theme of the first National Space Day (2024): 'Touching Lives while Touching the Moon'
- Mixing up National Space Day (23 August) with National Science Day (28 February) or World Space Week (4-10 October)
- Assuming the day marks Chandrayaan-3's launch (14 July 2023) rather than its landing (23 August 2023)
- Remembering only '23rd' when every option is a 23rd — the month is the discriminator here
MPPSC asks the bare date, as here. UPSC prefers a statement pair — the day plus the event it commemorates — and asks whether the explanation is correct, so learn the day and its reason together.
Consider the following statements : Statement-I : 7th August is declared as the National Handloom Day. Statement-II : It was in 1905 that the Swadeshi Movement was launched on the same day. Which one of the following is correct in respect of the above statements?
- (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I
- (b) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is not the correct explanation for Statement-I
- (c) Statement-I is correct but Statement-II is incorrect
- (d) Statement-I is incorrect but Statement-II is correct
Answer(a) Both statements are correct and Statement-II explains Statement-I
The same idea in UPSC's own style — a national day whose date is taken from the event it commemorates, exactly as 23 August comes from the Chandrayaan-3 landing.
From which year did the celebration of 21st June as International Yoga Day begin?
- (a) 2014
- (b) 2015
- (c) 2016
- (d) 2017
Answer(b) 2015
MPPSC testing the same fact block two years earlier — a designated observance day, its date and the year it began.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The lander and the rover of the Chandrayaan-3 mission were named, respectively:
- (a)Pragyan and Vikram
- (b)Vikram and Pragyan
- (c)Vikram and Bhaskara
- (d)Aryabhata and Pragyan
Answer(b) Vikram and Pragyan — the lander is Vikram, the rover Pragyan.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon has been named:
- (a)Tiranga Point
- (b)Jawahar Point
- (c)Shiv Shakti Point
- (d)Vikram Point
Answer(c) Shiv Shakti Point — 'Tiranga Point' is the name given to the Chandrayaan-2 impact site of 2019.