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 | Galactic Energy | SpaceX | Space One |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Status | Active | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Small | Heavy | Small |
| Propellant | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage | RP-1 / LOX | Solid |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2018 | 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. | 63,800 kgas of [1]Expended side boosters. Fully reusable ~27,500 kg LEO. ↑ Best | — |
| Payload to GTO | — | 26,700 kgas of [1]Expendable configuration; reusable ~8,000 kg ↑ Best | — |
| Height | 20 mas of [1] | 70 mas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Liftoff mass | 33 tas of [1] | 1,421 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Success rate | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] | 100%as of [2]12/12 mission successes through Falcon Heavy ViaSat-3 F3 (Apr 29, 2026) ↑ Best | 0/3 — three consecutive failuresas of [1]2024-03-13: disintegrated shortly after liftoff. 2024-12-18: began tumbling during 1st-stage burn, flight terminated. 2026-03-04: flight termination activated ~70 seconds after liftoff. All three launches flew from Spaceport Kii, Wakayama — Japan's first private-sector spaceport. Program grounded as of this research; precise payload/height/mass specs not confirmed from a primary source. |
| Total flights | 23as of [1] ↑ Best | 12as of [2] | 3as of [1] |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | ~$1,400/kgas of [1]Based on ~$97M list price / 63,800 kg (expendable configuration) | — |
| 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. | Currently the most powerful operational rocket in the world. Three Falcon 9 cores sharing propellant cross-feed produce 5.1 MN of sea-level thrust. Primary mission profile: DoD/NRO GEO payloads and planetary science. | A Japanese commercial solid-fuel small launcher that has failed on all three flight attempts through March 2026, putting its commercial viability in serious question. |
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.