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| Attribute | Long March 8 (incl. 8A) 🇨🇳 China Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | Interstellar Technologies | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (3 stages) + liquid-fueled 4th stage | Liquid biomethane (LBM) / LOX | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2017 | 2027 | 2020 |
| Payload to LEO | 400 kgas of [1] | 250 kgas of [1]500 km SSO. No flight attempts as of this research — follows the company's successful suborbital MOMO sounding-rocket program. A larger orbital vehicle, DECA, was announced January 2023. | 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 |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 19.4 mas of [1] | — | 50.3 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 30 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable — road-mobile solid launcher. | — | 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% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] |
| Total flights | 27as of [1] | — | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| 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. | A liquid-biomethane orbital smallsat launcher from Interstellar Technologies, Japan's most established private rocket startup by suborbital flight heritage, though not yet flown to orbit. | 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.