SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 12 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 10 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

What is the primary function of the Crew Escape System (CES) on ISRO’s Human Rated LVM3 (HLVM3) rocket?

(a)To guide the crew module into its designated Low Earth Orbit.
(b)To eject the crew module to safety during launch emergencies.
(c)To assist in docking the crew module with a space station.
(d)To provide thermal shielding during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. ISRO describes the HLVM3's Crew Escape System as a set of quick-acting, high-burn-rate solid motors that takes the Crew Module and crew to a safe distance in any emergency, at the launch pad or during the ascent phase.

That is option (b): pulling the crew module clear in a launch emergency.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
To guide the crew module into its designated Low Earth Orbit. — Reaching orbit is the launch vehicle's job. ISRO says HLVM3 itself, with its solid, liquid and cryogenic stages, will launch the Orbital Module to a 400 km Low Earth Orbit.
(c)
To assist in docking the crew module with a space station. — ISRO defines the escape system's role at the launch pad and during ascent. Docking is an operation in orbit and is no part of that role.
(d)
To provide thermal shielding during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. — Re-entry heat is handled by the Crew Module itself, whose external structure carries a Thermal Protection System, according to ISRO.

Concept

Gaganyaan is ISRO's human spaceflight programme. Its launcher is the LVM3, re-configured to meet human-rating requirements and renamed HLVM3.

The Orbital Module it carries has two parts: the Crew Module, the habitable space that also brings the crew back through re-entry, and the Service Module that supports it in orbit.

The Crew Escape System is the safety layer for the pad and the climb. The TV-D1 test flight demonstrated its in-flight abort at Mach 1.2.

The option's verb, eject, is loose. The system does not throw the crew out of the capsule: it pulls the whole Crew Module, with the crew inside, away from the rocket.

Key facts

HLVM3 is the LVM3 rocket re-configured for human rating, to put the Gaganyaan Orbital Module into a 400 km Low Earth Orbit.
The Crew Escape System uses quick-acting, high-burn-rate solid motors to take the Crew Module to a safe distance at the pad or during ascent.
The Crew Module's external structure carries a Thermal Protection System for re-entry.
The TV-D1 test flight demonstrated an in-flight abort of the Crew Escape System at Mach 1.2.

Study next

Gaganyaan precursor tests: Integrated Air Drop Test, Pad Abort Test and Test Vehicle flightsLVM3 stages: solid, liquid and cryogenicCrew Module versus Service Module in the Gaganyaan Orbital Module

Common traps

Crediting the escape system with orbit insertion, which is the rocket's job.
Reading eject as the crew leaving the capsule, when the whole Crew Module is pulled away.

Here a Gaganyaan subsystem is tested by its function, and the wrong options borrow jobs from other stages of a mission: orbit insertion, docking and re-entry.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Scientific Research — all 152 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.