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 | Roscosmos / Progress Rocket Space Centre | Khrunichev / Roscosmos |
| Country | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Status | Retired | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Small | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | Solid (HTPB — all stages) | RP-1 / LOX | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| First flight | 2013 – 2022 | 2004 | 2001 – 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 | 22,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | 3,250 kgas of [1]With Fregat-M upper stage | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best |
| Height | 26 mas of [1] | 46.3 mas of [1] | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 96 tas of [1] | 312 tas of [1] | 712 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 ↑ Best | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations |
| Total flights | 6as of [2] | ~165as of [2] ↑ Best | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 |
| 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). | 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. |
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.