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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 × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | CASC / SAST | ISRO | SpaceX |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇮🇳 India | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Super Heavy |
| Propellant | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic all stages) | Solid (S200 boosters) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (L110) + LH₂/LOX (C25) | CH₄ / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 1992 | 2017 | 2023 |
| Payload to LEO | 3,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~1,300 kg; standard LEO 3,500 kg | 10,000 kgas of [1] | ~150,000 kgas of [1]SpaceX projected max payload in fully expendable mode; ~100,000 kg reusable ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | 4,000 kgas of [1] | ~21,000 kgas of [1]Reusable configuration estimate ↑ Best |
| Height | 41.06 mas of [1] | 43.43 mas of [1] | 121 mas of [1]Version 2 (V2) full stack Ship + Super Heavy ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 232 tas of [1] | 643 tas of [1] | ~5,000 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 98.7%as of [2]~77/78 successes; one known failure (CZ-2D Y7, Mar 1995 upper-stage anomaly) | 100%as of [2]10/10 missions since development flight 2014 (D1). Production flights since 2017. ↑ Best | ~55%as of [2]IFT-1 through IFT-11; ~6 complete mission successes, remainder partial or vehicle lost. No orbital payload deployment yet. |
| Total flights | ~78as of [2] ↑ Best | 10as of [2] | 11as of [2]IFT-1 (Apr 2023) through IFT-11 (May 2026 target). IFT-10 (Aug 2025) achieved full mission: booster caught + Ship splash-down. |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$4,500/kgas of [1]Estimated from OneWeb commercial contract ~$450M for 36 satellites (~5 tonne batch to GTO) | ~$600/kgas of [1]SpaceX target figure; not yet achieved in operational configuration ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | China's most-used sun-synchronous and polar orbit workhorse for small-to-medium military and commercial Earth observation satellites. Launched from Jiuquan and Taiyuan. Uses storable hypergolic propellants for high launch-readiness but produces toxic exhaust. | 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. | Largest and most powerful rocket ever flown. Super Heavy booster uses 33 Raptor engines. V3 Ship introduced Aug 2025. Mechazilla caught the booster on IFT-5 (Oct 2024) and IFT-10 (Aug 2025). Primary vehicle for Artemis HLS lunar landing (Artemis III planned 2026). |
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.