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| Attribute | Long March 8 (incl. 8A) 🇨🇳 China Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | JAXA / IHI Aerospace | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC | ISRO |
| Country | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇨🇳 China | 🇮🇳 India |
| Status | Retired | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (HTPB — all stages) | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) | Solid (PS1/PS3) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (PS2/PS4) — 4 alternating stages |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| First flight | 2013 – 2022 | 2020 | 1993 |
| Payload to LEO | 590 kgas of [1]500 kg to SSO. Enhanced Epsilon (from E-4) added 700 kg LEO via PBS liquid kick stage. | 8,100 kgas of [1]5,000 kg to 700 km SSO (base); the enlarged-second-stage 8A variant (first flew 2025-02-11) lifts 7,000 kg to the same SSO reference orbit. ↑ Best | 3,800 kgas of [1]PSLV-XL with 6 extended solid strap-ons. Standard PSLV-G: 3,250 kg LEO. SSO: ~1,750 kg |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 26 mas of [1] | 50.3 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 44 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 96 tas of [1] | 356 t (base); 371 t (8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | 320 tas of [1]PSLV-XL configuration |
| Success rate | 83.3%as of [2]5/6 successes. E-6 (Oct 12, 2022) PBS upper stage failed to ignite, eight satellites lost. Epsilon S (next-generation) ground test anomaly Jan 2023 effectively ended the programme. | 100% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | 93.7%as of [2]60/64 mission successes. Two consecutive recent failures: C61 (2024) and C62 (Jan 12, 2026, stage-3 anomaly, 16 satellites lost). |
| Total flights | 6as of [2] | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ Best | 64as of [2] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$4,000/kgas of [1]Estimated from commercial launch contracts ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | JAXA's small solid-fuel rocket derived from the M-V rocket heritage. Designed for highly autonomous operations — launch preparations could be managed by just 8 people. The sixth and final E-6 mission (Oct 2022) failed when the PBS kick stage didn't ignite; a ground explosion during Epsilon S testing (Jan 2023) ended the programme. | A two-stage medium-lift launcher originally designed with a reusable combined-booster-recovery concept in mind, though currently operational vehicles fly expendable. Exclusively from Wenchang. | India's most reliable and frequently flown launch vehicle, operational since 1994. Set a world record in Feb 2017 by deploying 104 satellites in a single flight (Cartosat-2D + 103 microsats). Launched Chandrayaan-1 (2008), Mars Orbiter Mission (2013), and Aditya-L1 (2023). The dual C61/C62 failure streak raised concerns about aging solid motor design. The vehicle is on a return-to-flight campaign (not retired): PSLV-C63 (TDS-01 technology demonstrator), with strengthened third-stage/PS3 checks following the expert-committee (FAC) review, is targeted for late June / early July 2026. |
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.