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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Galactic Energy | United Launch Alliance | Relativity Space |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | Retired | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Small | Heavy | Heavy |
| Propellant | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage | LH2 / LOX | LOX / methane |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2004 – 2024 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. | 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 | — | — | — |
| Height | 20 mas of [1] | 70.7 mas of [1] | 87 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 33 tas of [1] | 733 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Success rate | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] | 93.75% (15/16 full success, 1 partial failure)as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Total flights | 23as of [1] ↑ Best | 16as of [1] | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | — | ~$55M per launch (estimate)as of [1]Total launch price estimate, not a per-kg figure. |
| Summary | 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. | ULA's triple-common-booster-core heavy-lift launcher, retired 2024-04-09 after its final flight; superseded by Vulcan Centaur, which ULA states offers similar heavy-lift capability at lower cost.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.