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| Attribute | GSLV Mk III (LVM3) 🇮🇳 India Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Northrop Grumman | ISRO | Khrunichev / Roscosmos |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇮🇳 India | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Status | Retired | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Heavy |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX (RD-181 first stage) | Solid (S200 boosters) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (L110) + LH₂/LOX (C25) | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| First flight | 2013 – 2023 | 2017 | 2001 – 2023 |
| Payload to LEO | 8,000 kgas of [1]Antares 230+ configuration; primarily used for ~3,500–3,800 kg Cygnus cargo | 10,000 kgas of [1] | 22,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | 4,000 kgas of [1] | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best |
| Height | 41 mas of [1] | 43.43 mas of [1] | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 298 tas of [1] | 643 tas of [1] | 712 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 91.7%as of [2]11/12 successes; Orb-3 (CRS-3) exploded at liftoff Oct 2014 | 100%as of [2]10/10 missions since development flight 2014 (D1). Production flights since 2017. ↑ Best | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations |
| Total flights | 12as of [2]Final Antares flight was NG-19 (Aug 1, 2023). NG-20+ moved to Falcon 9 due to Antares RD-181 engine supply disruption (Russia sanctions). | 10as of [2] | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$4,500/kgas of [1]Estimated from OneWeb commercial contract ~$450M for 36 satellites (~5 tonne batch to GTO) ↓ Cheapest | — |
| Summary | Primary launch vehicle for Cygnus ISS cargo missions from 2013–2023. Its Ukrainian-built Zenit-derived first stage and Russian RD-181 engines became untenable after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Northrop switched NG-20 onward to Falcon 9 while Antares 330 (with Firefly Miranda engines) is in development. | India's most powerful rocket. Launched Chandrayaan-3 (Moon lander) in Jul 2023 and OneWeb internet satellites commercially. Renamed LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark 3) in 2022. The CE-20 cryogenic engine was entirely ISRO-developed — previously India depended on Russian technology for the GSLV Mk II. | Russia's dominant heavy-lift rocket for GEO comsats and planetary missions from 1965 (Proton family) through 2023 (Proton-M). Notorious for its hypergolic propellant — a highly toxic UDMH/N₂O₄ combination that caused environmental concerns at Baikonur. Replaced by Angara A5. |
28 launch vehicles across 10 countries — active, retired, and in development — with primary-source citations from manufacturer user guides and agency press kits. Pure URL state: bookmark or share the link and the comparison reproduces exactly.