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| Attribute | GSLV Mk III (LVM3) 🇮🇳 India Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ISRO | JAXA / IHI Aerospace | CASC / CALT |
| Country | 🇮🇳 India | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Small | Heavy |
| Propellant | Solid (S200 boosters) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (L110) + LH₂/LOX (C25) | Solid (HTPB — all stages) | LH₂ / LOX (YF-77 core) + RP-1/LOX (YF-100 boosters) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2017 | 2013 – 2022 | 2016 |
| Payload to LEO | 10,000 kgas of [1] | 590 kgas of [1]500 kg to SSO. Enhanced Epsilon (from E-4) added 700 kg LEO via PBS liquid kick stage. | 25,000 kgas of [1]CZ-5B variant (no upper stage) delivers 25,000 kg LEO for Tiangong station modules ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | 4,000 kgas of [1] | — | 14,000 kgas of [1]CZ-5 variant (with YF-75D upper stage) ↑ Best |
| Height | 43.43 mas of [1] | 26 mas of [1] | 56.97 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 643 tas of [1] | 96 tas of [1] | 869 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]10/10 missions since development flight 2014 (D1). Production flights since 2017. ↑ Best | 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. | 94.1%as of [2]16/17 successes (10 CZ-5 + 7 CZ-5B). Failure: CZ-5 Y2 (Jul 2017, engine anomaly); loss of Shijian-18 satellite. |
| Total flights | 10as of [2] | 6as of [2] | 17as of [2] ↑ 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 | 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. | 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. | China's most powerful operational rocket and the backbone of its flagship space programs. Launched Tianwen-1 to Mars, Chang'e 5 sample return, Chang'e 6 far-side sample return, all Tiangong core and lab modules, and the Xuntian space telescope. The CZ-5B variant delivers entire station modules in a single flight. |
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.