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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle) 🇮🇳 India Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ISRO / Hindustan Aeronautics Limited | Avio / Arianespace | Firefly Aerospace / Northrop Grumman |
| Country | 🇮🇳 India | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Small | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (HTPB, stages 1–3) / MMH-MON3 liquid (velocity trimming module) | Solid (HTPB + ammonium perchlorate all four stages) | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| First flight | 2022 | 2022 | 2027 |
| Payload to LEO | 500 kgas of [1]500 km altitude, 35–55° inclination. 300 kg to 500 km SSO. | 2,300 kgas of [1]SSO: ~1,700 kg | 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. ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 34 mas of [1] | 35 mas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Liftoff mass | 120 tas of [1] | 210 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Success rate | 2/3 (67%)as of [1]First flight (Aug 2022) partial failure — satellites reached a lower-than-planned orbit. Second and third flights successful. ↑ Best | 75%as of [2]6/8 successes; VV22 (Dec 2022) Zefiro-40 failure destroyed Pléiades Neo 5&6; returned to flight VV25 (Dec 2024). 3 successes in 2025. | — |
| Total flights | 3as of [1] | 8as of [2] ↑ Best | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | ₹30–35 crore per launch (~$3.1M–$3.6M)as of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. | ~$16,500/kgas of [1]Based on ~$38M list price / 2,300 kg ↓ Cheapest | — |
| Summary | ISRO's small-satellite launcher, designed for quick-turnaround dedicated smallsat missions. Full manufacturing, marketing and launch rights were transferred to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in June 2025 under a technology-transfer agreement. | Europe's primary small satellite launcher derived from Vega. The P120C first-stage motor is shared with Ariane 6's solid strap-on boosters. Avio took over programme management from Arianespace in Dec 2025. | 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.