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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle) 🇮🇳 India Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Galactic Energy | ISRO / Hindustan Aeronautics Limited | CASC / SAST |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇮🇳 India | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage | Solid (HTPB, stages 1–3) / MMH-MON3 liquid (velocity trimming module) | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic all stages) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2022 | 1992 |
| Payload to LEO | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. | 500 kgas of [1]500 km altitude, 35–55° inclination. 300 kg to 500 km SSO. | 3,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~1,300 kg; standard LEO 3,500 kg ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 20 mas of [1] | 34 mas of [1] | 41.06 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 33 tas of [1] | 120 tas of [1] | 232 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] | 2/3 (67%)as of [1]First flight (Aug 2022) partial failure — satellites reached a lower-than-planned orbit. Second and third flights successful. ↑ Best | 98.7%as of [2]~77/78 successes; one known failure (CZ-2D Y7, Mar 1995 upper-stage anomaly) |
| Total flights | 23as of [1] | 3as of [1] | ~78as of [2] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | ₹30–35 crore per launch (~$3.1M–$3.6M)as of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. | — |
| Summary | Galactic Energy's workhorse small-lift solid rocket — one of the most-flown Chinese commercial launchers — with a sea-launch variant (Ceres-1S, debuted Sep 2023) and a larger Ceres-2 in development. | ISRO's small-satellite launcher, designed for quick-turnaround dedicated smallsat missions. Full manufacturing, marketing and launch rights were transferred to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in June 2025 under a technology-transfer agreement. | China's most-used sun-synchronous and polar orbit workhorse for small-to-medium military and commercial Earth observation satellites. Launched from Jiuquan and Taiyuan. Uses storable hypergolic propellants for high launch-readiness but produces toxic exhaust. |
48 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.