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 | JAXA / IHI Aerospace | Khrunichev / Roscosmos | CASC / CALT |
| Country | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Retired | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Heavy | Heavy |
| Propellant | Solid (HTPB — all stages) | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) | UDMH/N₂O₄ (stages 1–2) + LH₂/LOX (stage 3 YF-75) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| First flight | 2013 – 2022 | 2001 – 2023 | 1996 |
| Payload to LEO | 590 kgas of [1]500 kg to SSO. Enhanced Epsilon (from E-4) added 700 kg LEO via PBS liquid kick stage. | 22,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 11,200 kgas of [1] |
| Payload to GTO | — | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best | 5,500 kgas of [1]With 4 strap-on liquid boosters (CZ-3B/E enhanced variant) |
| Height | 26 mas of [1] | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 54.84 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 96 tas of [1] | 712 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 426 tas of [1]Enhanced variant with 4 liquid strap-on boosters |
| Success rate | 83.3%as of [2]5/6 successes. E-6 (Oct 12, 2022) PBS upper stage failed to ignite, eight satellites lost. Epsilon S (next-generation) ground test anomaly Jan 2023 effectively ended the programme. | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations | ~95%as of [2]~6 failures/partial failures out of ~105+ flights; gradually being superseded by Long March 5 for GTO ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 6as of [2] | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best | ~105as of [2] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | JAXA's small solid-fuel rocket derived from the M-V rocket heritage. Designed for highly autonomous operations — launch preparations could be managed by just 8 people. The sixth and final E-6 mission (Oct 2022) failed when the PBS kick stage didn't ignite; a ground explosion during Epsilon S testing (Jan 2023) ended the programme. | Russia's dominant heavy-lift rocket for GEO comsats and planetary missions from 1965 (Proton family) through 2023 (Proton-M). Notorious for its hypergolic propellant — a highly toxic UDMH/N₂O₄ combination that caused environmental concerns at Baikonur. Replaced by Angara A5. | China's primary geostationary transfer vehicle for over 25 years. Launched communications, meteorology, and navigation satellites including Beidou-3 (GEO/IGSO nodes). Being phased out in favour of Long March 5 for heavier GTO payloads as newer domestic communications satellites grow in mass. |
28 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.