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 | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC | ISRO | Galactic Energy |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇮🇳 India | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Medium | Small |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) | Solid (PS1/PS3) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (PS2/PS4) — 4 alternating stages | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| First flight | 2020 | 1993 | 2020 |
| Payload to LEO | 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 | 3,800 kgas of [1]PSLV-XL with 6 extended solid strap-ons. Standard PSLV-G: 3,250 kg LEO. SSO: ~1,750 kg | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 50.3 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 44 mas of [1] | 20 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 356 t (base); 371 t (8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | 320 tas of [1]PSLV-XL configuration | 33 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 100% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | 93.7%as of [2]60/64 mission successes. Two consecutive recent failures: C61 (2024) and C62 (Jan 12, 2026, stage-3 anomaly, 16 satellites lost). | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] |
| Total flights | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ Best | 64as of [2] | 23as of [1] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$4,000/kgas of [1]Estimated from commercial launch contracts | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | 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. | India's most reliable and frequently flown launch vehicle, operational since 1994. Set a world record in Feb 2017 by deploying 104 satellites in a single flight (Cartosat-2D + 103 microsats). Launched Chandrayaan-1 (2008), Mars Orbiter Mission (2013), and Aditya-L1 (2023). The dual C61/C62 failure streak raised concerns about aging solid motor design. The vehicle is on a return-to-flight campaign (not retired): PSLV-C63 (TDS-01 technology demonstrator), with strengthened third-stage/PS3 checks following the expert-committee (FAC) review, is targeted for late June / early July 2026. | Galactic Energy's workhorse small-lift solid rocket — one of the most-flown Chinese commercial launchers — with a sea-launch variant (Ceres-1S, debuted Sep 2023) and a larger Ceres-2 in development. |
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.