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 | Long March 6 (incl. 6A / 6C variants) 🇨🇳 China Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Gilmour Space Technologies | SAST (Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology) / CASC | Orienspace |
| Country | 🇦🇺 Australia | 🇨🇳 China | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | In Development | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | Hybrid (Sirius motors, stages 1–2) / liquid (Phoenix engine, stage 3) | RP-1 / LOX (stages 1–2); N2O4/UDMH (stage 3, base variant) | Solid (HTPB) — three core stages + four strap-on boosters |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| First flight | 2025 | 2015 | 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 300 kgas of [1] | 1,080 kg to SSO (base Long March 6)as of [1]Long March 6A (4 solid boosters, elongated stage 1): at least 4,000 kg to SSO. Long March 6C: similar class without the boosters. Both variants first flew from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. ↑ Best | 6,500 kgas of [1]~4,200 kg to 500 km SSO |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 25 mas of [1] | 29 m (base variant)as of [1] | 30 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | — | 103 t (base variant)as of [1] | ~400 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 0/1as of [1]Maiden flight 2025-07-30 crashed 14 seconds after launch (insufficient thrust), from Bowen Orbital Spaceport, Queensland — Australia's first domestic orbital launch attempt. Preceded by two scrubs (2025-05-15 electrical issue, 2025-05-16 fairing anomaly). A second test flight was slated for early 2026. Block 2 (1,000 kg payload) and Eris Heavy (4,000 kg payload) variants are planned. | 100% (base Long March 6, 15/15)as of [1]6A first flew 2022-03-29, 6C first flew 2024-05-07; both maintain perfect records within their own flight histories as of this date. ↑ Best | 100%as of [2]2/2 successes: maiden flight Jan 11, 2024; second flight Oct 2025 delivered 3 commercial satellites to SSO |
| Total flights | 1as of [1] | 15 (base variant)as of [1] ↑ Best | 2as of [2]Both flights launched from a barge in the Yellow Sea off Haiyang, Shandong |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | Australia's first domestically developed orbital launch vehicle attempt, using a hybrid-propellant first and second stage; the maiden flight failed 14 seconds after liftoff in July 2025. | A family of medium-lift launchers from SAST serving China's growing SSO/LEO commercial and government satellite demand, with the 6A and 6C variants adding solid boosters or a simplified expendable configuration respectively. | The world's most powerful solid-propellant launch vehicle and the largest rocket yet flown from a sea platform. Orienspace's barge-launched Gravity-1 gives Chinese commercial customers a mobile, weather-flexible ride for mid-inclination smallsat batches; both flights to date succeeded. |
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.