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| Attribute | GSLV Mk III (LVM3) 🇮🇳 India Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ISRO | Rocket Lab | Arianespace / ArianeGroup |
| Country | 🇮🇳 India | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇪🇺 Europe |
| Status | Active | In Development | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | Solid (S200 boosters) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (L110) + LH₂/LOX (C25) | CH₄ / LOX | LH₂ / LOX (Vulcain 2) + solid HTPB boosters |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2017 | 2026 | 1996 – 2023 |
| Payload to LEO | 10,000 kgas of [1] | 13,000 kgas of [1]Expendable; ~8,000 kg reusable with first-stage return | 21,000 kgas of [1]Ariane 5 ECA configuration ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | 4,000 kgas of [1] | — | 10,865 kgas of [1]ECA configuration. Ariane 5 ES (ATV) variant: 21,000 kg LEO ↑ Best |
| Height | 43.43 mas of [1] | ~40 mas of [1] | 54 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 643 tas of [1] | ~481 tas of [1] | 777 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]10/10 missions since development flight 2014 (D1). Production flights since 2017. ↑ Best | — | 97.5%as of [2]113/117 successes. Failures: V501 (Jun 1996, first flight), V63 (Dec 2002, off-course but payload recovered). 2 partial successes. |
| Total flights | 10as of [2] | — | 117as of [2]VA261 (Jul 5, 2023) was the final Ariane 5 flight. Launched the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021). ↑ 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. | Rocket Lab's medium-lift reusable rocket targeting the $100B constellation replenishment market. Uses a 'hungry hippo' fairings design that opens at the top rather than traditional clamshell separation. First flight delayed to Q4 2026 after a Jan 2026 propellant tank test anomaly. | Europe's dominant heavy-lift rocket for 27 years. Its most famous payload: the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 25, 2021). Retired Jul 5, 2023 to make way for Ariane 6. Responsible for launching over 250 commercial and scientific payloads including XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and BepiColombo. |
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.