ISRO Recruitment 2026: Good News – 244 Vacancies for Assistant, UDC, JPA & Steno (Ex-Servicemen Age Relaxation Inside)

ISRO Recruitment 2026 is officially open, and this one is worth a close look if you’re an ex-serviceman hunting for a stable central government post. The ISRO Centralised Recruitment Board (ICRB) released Advertisement No. ISRO:ICRB:01(A-JPA):2026 on 27 July 2026, inviting applications for 244 posts of Assistant, Junior Personal Assistant (JPA), Upper Division Clerk (UDC) and Stenographer across ISRO centres and Department of Space autonomous bodies.

What makes this notification worth flagging for the ESM community specifically: a dedicated Ex-Servicemen quota runs across every post category, age relaxation applies as per Government of India orders, and the pay lands in Level 4 of the Pay Matrix with a minimum basic pay of ₹25,500 a month. If you served and you’re now eyeing a desk job with government benefits, here’s everything in one place — vacancy breakup, eligibility, fees, exam pattern, and how to apply.

What Is the ISRO Recruitment 2026 Notification About?

This drive fills clerical and stenography-cadre posts at ISRO centres including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Sriharikota, Mahendragiri, Thiruvananthapuram and New Delhi, plus a handful of posts earmarked for autonomous bodies under the Department of Space such as NARL, Gadanki and IIRS, Dehradun. The four post types are Assistant, Junior Personal Assistant, Upper Division Clerk, and Stenographer — all in Level 4 of the Pay Matrix.

Online registration for ISRO Recruitment 2026 opened on 27 July 2026 at 10:00 AM and closes on 16 August 2026 at 11:55 PM. There’s no offline application route; everything, including the fee payment, goes through the ISRO website.

Vacancy Breakdown: Where the 244 Posts Are

Here’s how the ISRO Recruitment 2026 vacancies split across post categories, including the Ex-Servicemen (ESM) reserved slots:

That’s 21 posts reserved for Ex-Servicemen across the board, with the Assistant post at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Sriharikota carrying the bulk of them. Zone-wise numbers and category splits (UR, OBC, SC, ST, EWS, PwBD) are listed in full in the advertisement, so cross-check your zone before applying.

Who Can Apply: Eligibility for ISRO Recruitment 2026 Posts

The qualification bar for ISRO Recruitment 2026 differs slightly by post group:

For Assistant and Upper Division Clerk (Post No. 1, 3, 5):

• Graduation with a minimum of 60% marks, or a CGPA of 6.32 on a 10-point scale, completed within the university’s stipulated course duration
• Proficiency in the use of computers

For Junior Personal Assistant and Stenographer (Post No. 2, 4, 6):

• Graduation with the same 60%/CGPA 6.32 benchmark, OR a Diploma in Commercial/Secretarial Practice at the same benchmark
• One year of experience as a Steno-Typist/Stenographer (a BOAT apprenticeship certificate counts as equivalent for DCP/DCCP diploma holders)
• A minimum speed of 60 words per minute in English Stenography
• Computer proficiency

If your degree certificate shows both CGPA and percentage, meeting either one is enough. Where only CGPA is mentioned, ISRO won’t accept a converted percentage figure — the CGPA itself has to meet the cutoff.

Age Limit and Relaxation for Ex-Servicemen

Under ISRO Recruitment 2026, the base age limit is 28 years as on 16 August 2026, going up to 31 years for OBC candidates and 33 years for SC/ST candidates wherever posts are reserved for them. Ex-Servicemen, along with serving government employees, persons with disabilities, meritorious sportspersons, and widows/divorced women who haven’t remarried, are eligible for age relaxation as per standing Government of India orders.

The advertisement doesn’t spell out the exact number of years of relaxation for the ESM category in this particular notice — it just points to the applicable GoI orders. Don’t assume a number; check the FAQ section on ISRO’s website or your own discharge-linked relaxation before you submit.

Application Fee and Refund — What Ex-Servicemen Get Back

Under ISRO Recruitment 2026, every applicant pays ₹500 as a processing fee upfront, through the Bharatkosh e-payment gateway only (internet banking, UPI, or domestic debit card — no cash, cheque, or DD). Out of that:

• Women, SC/ST, PwBD, and Ex-Servicemen candidates get the processing fee refunded in full, but only if they actually appear for the written test/CBT.
• All other candidates get a refund after a ₹100 non-refundable application fee is deducted.

The refund lands in the bank account details you enter in the application, so get the account number and IFSC code right the first time — ISRO won’t chase up a wrong entry on your behalf.

Selection Process: Written Test and Skill Test

Selection under ISRO Recruitment 2026 runs in two stages.

Written test — 150 minutes, objective type, held across 38 centres including Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Jammu, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram, with +1/-0.25 marking.

• Assistant/UDC paper: General English, Quantitative Aptitude, General Intelligence & Reasoning, and General Knowledge — 50 questions each, 200 marks total.
• JPA/Stenographer paper: English Language & Comprehension (100 marks), General Intelligence & Reasoning (50 marks), and Quantitative Aptitude & General Knowledge (50 marks).
• Qualifying marks are 50% for unreserved candidates and 40% for reserved categories against notified reserved vacancies.

Skill test — shortlisted candidates (roughly 1:5 of category-wise vacancies) sit for a Computer Literacy Test covering MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint (75 minutes). JPA and Stenographer candidates additionally take a Stenography Test: 300 words dictated at 60 wpm, five minutes of dictation followed by 30 minutes to transcribe on computer, using Pitman shorthand only.

Final selection is based purely on written test marks, but only from among candidates who clear the skill test. Government/PSU employees must carry a No Objection Certificate to the skill test — skipping it means no skill test and no travel allowance.

Important Points to Remember

A few practical things ISRO Recruitment 2026 applicants tend to miss:

• You can apply for different posts across zones, but not for the same post in two different zones.
• Upload a recent colour passport photo (jpg/jpeg, 50-100 KB) and signature (jpg/jpeg, 50-100 KB) exactly to spec — Annexure I shows accepted and rejected photo samples.
• Ex-Servicemen candidates should upload their ESM certificate at the application stage itself to claim the fee refund and reserved-category consideration.
• No TA is paid for the written test; only skill test candidates get second-class train fare reimbursement by the shortest route.
• All future correspondence comes only through your registered email — check spam folders regularly, since ISRO won’t resend anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Words

ISRO Recruitment 2026 is a genuine opportunity for the ESM community — a Level 4 central government post with the usual DA, HRA, medical and pension benefits, and a fee refund built in for Ex-Servicemen who show up for the exam. Don’t wait till the last week of the window; register early, get your ESM certificate and documents scanned to the exact file-size specs, and double-check your zone and post number before you submit, because ISRO doesn’t allow corrections once the form is in.

Source: ISRO:ICRB:01(A-JPA):2026 dated 27-07-2026. Official notification and updates: isro.gov.in

ISRO Recruitment 2026: Important Links

Candidates can apply online and receive relevant notifications regarding the ISRO Recruitment by clicking the highlighted links given in the table below, free of cost.