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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Arianespace / ArianeGroup | JAXA / IHI Aerospace | Firefly Aerospace |
| Country | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Retired | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Small | Small |
| Propellant | LH₂ / LOX (Vulcain 2) + solid HTPB boosters | Solid (HTPB — all stages) | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 1996 – 2023 | 2013 – 2022 | 2021 |
| Payload to LEO | 21,000 kgas of [1]Ariane 5 ECA configuration ↑ Best | 590 kgas of [1]500 kg to SSO. Enhanced Epsilon (from E-4) added 700 kg LEO via PBS liquid kick stage. | 1,030 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~630 kg |
| 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] ↑ Best | 26 mas of [1] | 29 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 777 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 96 tas of [1] | 54 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 | 83.3%as of [2]5/6 successes. E-6 (Oct 12, 2022) PBS upper stage failed to ignite, eight satellites lost. Epsilon S (next-generation) ground test anomaly Jan 2023 effectively ended the programme. | 43%as of [2]3/7 full successes (FLTA003 Jul 2023, FLTA005 Dec 2024, FLTA007 Mar 2026) + 2 partial successes + 2 failures through FLTA007 |
| Total flights | 117as of [2]VA261 (Jul 5, 2023) was the final Ariane 5 flight. Launched the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021). ↑ Best | 6as of [2] | 7as of [2] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$14,500/kgas of [1]Based on ~$15M list price / 1,030 kg LEO ↓ 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. | JAXA's small solid-fuel rocket derived from the M-V rocket heritage. Designed for highly autonomous operations — launch preparations could be managed by just 8 people. The sixth and final E-6 mission (Oct 2022) failed when the PBS kick stage didn't ignite; a ground explosion during Epsilon S testing (Jan 2023) ended the programme. | Firefly Aerospace's two-stage small-lift rocket powered by four Reaver engines at sea level and one Lightning engine in vacuum. Also provides launch services for NASA's CLPS programme (Blue Ghost lander launched on Falcon 9). FLTA007 'Stairway to Seven' succeeded Mar 11, 2026. |
28 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.