Pick up to 4 launch vehicles to compare side-by-side. State lives in the URL — share the link and the comparison loads exactly as you left it.
The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | Long March 8 (incl. 8A) 🇨🇳 China Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | CASC / CALT | Northrop Grumman | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX (YF-100 + YF-115) | RP-1 / LOX (RD-181 first stage) | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2016 | 2013 – 2023 | 2020 |
| Payload to LEO | 13,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~5,500 kg ↑ Best | 8,000 kgas of [1]Antares 230+ configuration; primarily used for ~3,500–3,800 kg Cygnus cargo | 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 | — | — | — |
| Height | 53.1 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 41 mas of [1] | 50.3 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 597 tas of [1] | 298 tas of [1] | 356 t (base); 371 t (8A)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]12/12 missions, all Tianzhou ISS resupply or CZ-7 tech demo flights | 91.7%as of [2]11/12 successes; Orb-3 (CRS-3) exploded at liftoff Oct 2014 | 100% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 12as of [2]Most recently Tianzhou-10 cargo to Tiangong (May 11, 2026) | 12as of [2]Final Antares flight was NG-19 (Aug 1, 2023). NG-20+ moved to Falcon 9 due to Antares RD-181 engine supply disruption (Russia sanctions). | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | China's workhorse medium-lift rocket, used exclusively for Tianzhou automated cargo missions to the Tiangong space station. Designed to replace the Long March 2F for high-cadence LEO/cargo missions. Uses the same YF-100 engines as Long March 5's boosters. | Primary launch vehicle for Cygnus ISS cargo missions from 2013–2023. Its Ukrainian-built Zenit-derived first stage and Russian RD-181 engines became untenable after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Northrop switched NG-20 onward to Falcon 9 while Antares 330 (with Firefly Miranda engines) is in development. | 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.