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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | Nuri (KSLV-II) 🇰🇷 South Korea Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | United Launch Alliance | Interstellar Technologies | KARI / Hanwha Aerospace |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇰🇷 South Korea |
| Status | Retired | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | LH2 / LOX | Liquid biomethane (LBM) / LOX | RP-1 / LOX (KRE-075 engines all stages) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| First flight | 2004 – 2024 | 2027 | 2021 |
| Payload to LEO | 28,370 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 250 kgas of [1]500 km SSO. No flight attempts as of this research — follows the company's successful suborbital MOMO sounding-rocket program. A larger orbital vehicle, DECA, was announced January 2023. | 2,600 kgas of [1]600 km SSO target orbit |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 70.7 mas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 47.2 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 733 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 200 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 93.75% (15/16 full success, 1 partial failure)as of [1] ↑ Best | — | 75%as of [2]3/4 full successes: TF1 (Oct 2021) partial, TF2 (Jun 2022) success, TF3 (May 2023) success, TF4 (Nov 27, 2025 — first Hanwha-led production launch) success |
| Total flights | 16as of [1] ↑ Best | — | 4as of [2] |
| 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| Summary | ULA's triple-common-booster-core heavy-lift launcher, retired 2024-04-09 after its final flight; superseded by Vulcan Centaur, which ULA states offers similar heavy-lift capability at lower cost.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 liquid-biomethane orbital smallsat launcher from Interstellar Technologies, Japan's most established private rocket startup by suborbital flight heritage, though not yet flown to orbit. | South Korea's first domestically developed and produced launch vehicle, designed entirely without foreign engine technology. Nuri TF4 (Nov 2025) was the first launch managed by Hanwha Aerospace rather than KARI — marking the transition to commercial operation. KASA (Korea Aerospace Administration) took over programme oversight in 2024. |
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.