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 | Orienspace | CASC / SAST | ULA |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (HTPB) — three core stages + four strap-on boosters | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic all stages) | RP-1 / LOX (RD-180); LH₂ / LOX (Centaur III) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2024 | 1992 | 2002 |
| Payload to LEO | 6,500 kgas of [1]~4,200 kg to 500 km SSO | 3,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~1,300 kg; standard LEO 3,500 kg | 18,850 kgas of [1]401 configuration. Maximum 401/551 stretch to 20,520 kg. 551 max 29,420 kg (5-solid boosters). ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | 8,900 kgas of [1]551 configuration (maximum performance) ↑ Best |
| Height | 30 mas of [1] | 41.06 mas of [1] | 58.3 mas of [1]401 configuration ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | ~400 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 232 tas of [1] | 334 tas of [1]401 configuration without strap-ons |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]2/2 successes: maiden flight Jan 11, 2024; second flight Oct 2025 delivered 3 commercial satellites to SSO ↑ Best | 98.7%as of [2]~77/78 successes; one known failure (CZ-2D Y7, Mar 1995 upper-stage anomaly) | 99.1%as of [2]108 full successes + 1 partial failure (NROL-30, Jun 2007 — payload still reached usable orbit) across 109 launches |
| Total flights | 2as of [2]Both flights launched from a barge in the Yellow Sea off Haiyang, Shandong | ~78as of [2] | 109as of [2]No longer sold but still flying its backlog: ~8 launches remained as of Apr 2026 (6 Starliner + 2 Amazon Leo); most recent flight Amazon Leo LA-07 (May 29, 2026), ~7 remain ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | 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. | China's most-used sun-synchronous and polar orbit workhorse for small-to-medium military and commercial Earth observation satellites. Launched from Jiuquan and Taiyuan. Uses storable hypergolic propellants for high launch-readiness but produces toxic exhaust. | ULA's workhorse since 2002 and the longest-serving active US rocket. Launched Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity), OSIRIS-REx, Solar Orbiter, Lucy, New Horizons, and the Boeing Starliner. Production ended in 2024 and ULA no longer sells the vehicle, but it continues flying a sold-out backlog of Starliner and Amazon Leo missions into the late 2020s. |
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.