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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Arianespace / ArianeGroup | United Launch Alliance | Relativity Space |
| Country | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Retired | Retired | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Heavy | Heavy |
| Propellant | LH₂ / LOX (Vulcain 2) + solid HTPB boosters | LH2 / LOX | LOX / methane |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 1996 – 2023 | 2004 – 2024 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 21,000 kgas of [1]Ariane 5 ECA configuration | 28,370 kgas of [1] | 33,500 kg expendable / 23,500 kg with a reusable first stageas of [1]First flight targeted 2026 (stated plan, not yet confirmed flown as of this research). ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | 10,865 kgas of [1]ECA configuration. Ariane 5 ES (ATV) variant: 21,000 kg LEO ↑ Best | — | — |
| Height | 54 mas of [1] | 70.7 mas of [1] | 87 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 777 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 733 tas of [1] | — |
| Success rate | 97.5%as of [2]113/117 successes. Failures: V501 (Jun 1996, first flight), V63 (Dec 2002, off-course but payload recovered). 2 partial successes. ↑ Best | 93.75% (15/16 full success, 1 partial failure)as of [1] | — |
| Total flights | 117as of [2]VA261 (Jul 5, 2023) was the final Ariane 5 flight. Launched the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021). ↑ Best | 16as of [1] | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$55M per launch (estimate)as of [1]Total launch price estimate, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | Europe's dominant heavy-lift rocket for 27 years. Its most famous payload: the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 25, 2021). Retired Jul 5, 2023 to make way for Ariane 6. Responsible for launching over 250 commercial and scientific payloads including XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and BepiColombo. | ULA's triple-common-booster-core heavy-lift launcher, retired 2024-04-09 after its final flight; superseded by Vulcan Centaur, which ULA states offers similar heavy-lift capability at lower cost. | Relativity Space's Falcon-9-class successor to Terran 1, partially 3D-printed, with 13 Aeon R methalox engines on a reusable first stage; second stage and fairing expendable. |
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.