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 | United Launch Alliance | Firefly Aerospace / Northrop Grumman | JAXA / Mitsubishi Heavy Industries |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Status | Retired | In Development | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | LH2 / LOX | RP-1 / LOX | LH₂ / LOX (LE-7A first stage + LE-5B second stage) |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2004 – 2024 | 2027 | 2001 – 2025 |
| Payload to LEO | 28,370 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 16,000+ kgas of [1]5 m fairing. Renamed from 'Medium Launch Vehicle' (MLV) to 'Eclipse' in May 2025 alongside the Northrop Grumman partnership. First stage (7 Miranda engines) designed for reuse from roughly the 6th flight onward; second stage uses one Vira engine. First flight targeted 2027 — stated plan, not yet flown. | 10,000 kgas of [1]202 configuration (2 SRB-A3 solid strap-ons) |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | 4,100 kgas of [1]202 configuration ↑ Best |
| Height | 70.7 mas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 53 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 733 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 285 tas of [1]202 configuration |
| Success rate | 93.75% (15/16 full success, 1 partial failure)as of [1] | — | 98%as of [2]49/50 successes. Only failure: F6 (Nov 2003, MTSAT-1R lost due to SRB separation anomaly). Retired after Flight 50 (GOSAT-GW, Jun 28, 2025). ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 16as of [1] | — | 50as of [2]50 flights from 2001–2025. H3 replaces it from 2024 onward. ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | ULA's triple-common-booster-core heavy-lift launcher, retired 2024-04-09 after its final flight; superseded by Vulcan Centaur, which ULA states offers similar heavy-lift capability at lower cost. | A medium-lift successor to Firefly's Alpha, co-developed with Northrop Grumman, aimed at the national-security and commercial medium-lift gap between small launchers and heavy-lift vehicles. | Japan's flagship medium-lift rocket for 24 years, retiring after an exceptional 49/50 mission success record. Launched the SELENE lunar orbiter (2007), Akatsuki Venus probe (2010), Hayabusa2 (2014), SLIM lunar lander (2023), and the ALOS series Earth observation satellites. |
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.