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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | JAXA / IHI Aerospace | Roscosmos / Progress Rocket Space Centre | Arianespace / ArianeGroup |
| Country | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇪🇺 Europe |
| Status | Retired | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Small | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | Solid (HTPB — all stages) | RP-1 / LOX | LH₂ / LOX (Vulcain 2) + solid HTPB boosters |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2013 – 2022 | 2004 | 1996 – 2023 |
| 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. | 8,200 kgas of [1]Soyuz-2.1b with Fregat upper stage; 2.1a variant ~7,020 kg LEO | 21,000 kgas of [1]Ariane 5 ECA configuration ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | 3,250 kgas of [1]With Fregat-M upper stage | 10,865 kgas of [1]ECA configuration. Ariane 5 ES (ATV) variant: 21,000 kg LEO ↑ Best |
| Height | 26 mas of [1] | 46.3 mas of [1] | 54 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 96 tas of [1] | 312 tas of [1] | 777 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| 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. | 97%as of [2]~160/165 mission successes since 2004 per aggregated launch logs | 97.5%as of [2]113/117 successes. Failures: V501 (Jun 1996, first flight), V63 (Dec 2002, off-course but payload recovered). 2 partial successes. ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 6as of [2] | ~165as of [2] ↑ Best | 117as of [2]VA261 (Jul 5, 2023) was the final Ariane 5 flight. Launched the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021). |
| 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 primary medium-lift workhorse, descended from the Soyuz family that has flown since 1966. Carries both crewed Soyuz spacecraft and Cygnus-class cargo. Fregat upper stage significantly expands mission flexibility. Production continues at Samara (now TsSKB-Progress). | Europe's dominant heavy-lift rocket for 27 years. Its most famous payload: the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 25, 2021). Retired Jul 5, 2023 to make way for Ariane 6. Responsible for launching over 250 commercial and scientific payloads including XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and BepiColombo. |
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.