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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | GSLV Mk III (LVM3) 🇮🇳 India Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Remove × | Long March 8 (incl. 8A) 🇨🇳 China Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | ISRO | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇮🇳 India | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Heavy | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (3 stages) + liquid-fueled 4th stage | Solid (S200 boosters) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (L110) + LH₂/LOX (C25) | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2017 | 2017 | 2020 |
| Payload to LEO | 400 kgas of [1] | 10,000 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 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. |
| Payload to GTO | — | 4,000 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Height | 19.4 mas of [1] | 43.43 mas of [1] | 50.3 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 30 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable — road-mobile solid launcher. | 643 tas of [1] | 356 t (base); 371 t (8A)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | ~85% (23 successes, 3 failures, 1 partial failure of 27)as of [1] ↑ Best | 100%as of [2]10/10 missions since development flight 2014 (D1). Production flights since 2017. | 100% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] |
| Total flights | 27as of [1] | 10as of [2] | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ 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 | CASIC's road-mobile, quick-response small solid launcher, operated commercially by ExPace since 2017 — one of the higher-cadence Chinese small-lift vehicles. | 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. | 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. |
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.