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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 | Khrunichev / Roscosmos | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC | Firefly Aerospace / Northrop Grumman |
| Country | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Retired | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2001 – 2023 | 2020 | 2027 |
| Payload to LEO | 22,400 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. | 16,000+ kgas of [1]5 m fairing. Renamed from 'Medium Launch Vehicle' (MLV) to 'Eclipse' in May 2025 alongside the Northrop Grumman partnership. First stage (7 Miranda engines) designed for reuse from roughly the 6th flight onward; second stage uses one Vira engine. First flight targeted 2027 — stated plan, not yet flown. |
| Payload to GTO | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best | — | — |
| Height | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 50.3 mas of [1] | — |
| Liftoff mass | 712 tas of [1] | 356 t (base); 371 t (8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Success rate | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations | 100% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Total flights | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | Russia's dominant heavy-lift rocket for GEO comsats and planetary missions from 1965 (Proton family) through 2023 (Proton-M). Notorious for its hypergolic propellant — a highly toxic UDMH/N₂O₄ combination that caused environmental concerns at Baikonur. Replaced by Angara A5. | 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. | A medium-lift successor to Firefly's Alpha, co-developed with Northrop Grumman, aimed at the national-security and commercial medium-lift gap between small launchers and heavy-lift vehicles. |
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.