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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Galactic Energy | Avio | Rocket Lab |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | In Development | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Small | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage | Solid (P160C first stage) / LOX-methane (cryogenic upper stage) | CH₄ / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2027 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. | — | 13,000 kgas of [1]Reusable configuration with downrange barge landing — this is the single payload figure Rocket Lab publishes. ~15,000 kg expendable. ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 20 mas of [1] | — | 43 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 33 tas of [1] | — | ~481 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] ↑ Best | — | — |
| Total flights | 23as of [1] ↑ Best | — | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | — | — |
| 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. | The next evolution of ESA's Vega line: replaces the Zefiro-9 and AVUM+ stages with a single cryogenic LOX/methane upper stage powered by the new M10 engine, adding multi-orbit deployment flexibility. First flight is a stated target (2027), not yet flown. | Rocket Lab's medium-lift reusable rocket targeting the $100B constellation replenishment market. Uses a 'hungry hippo' fairings design that opens at the top rather than traditional clamshell separation. First flight delayed to Q4 2026 after a Jan 2026 propellant tank test anomaly. |
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.