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 | PLD Space | Firefly Aerospace / Northrop Grumman |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇪🇸 Spain | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | In Development | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (HTPB) — three core stages + four strap-on boosters | RP-1 / LOX | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | Yes | Yes |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2024 | 2026 | 2027 |
| Payload to LEO | 6,500 kgas of [1]~4,200 kg to 500 km SSO | 1,080 kgas of [1]540 kg to SSO. First flight is a stated plan (targeted Q1 2026 as of this research; not yet confirmed flown) — treat as a target, not a fact. | 16,000+ kgas of [1]5 m fairing. Renamed from 'Medium Launch Vehicle' (MLV) to 'Eclipse' in May 2025 alongside the Northrop Grumman partnership. First stage (7 Miranda engines) designed for reuse from roughly the 6th flight onward; second stage uses one Vira engine. First flight targeted 2027 — stated plan, not yet flown. ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 30 mas of [1] | 35.7 mas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Liftoff mass | ~400 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 69 tas of [1] | — |
| 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 | — | — |
| Total flights | 2as of [2]Both flights launched from a barge in the Yellow Sea off Haiyang, Shandong ↑ 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. | PLD Space's orbital small launcher with a recoverable first stage (engine thrust + parachutes), developed with ESA Future Launchers Preparatory Programme support; primary launch site is the Guiana Space Centre. | A medium-lift successor to Firefly's Alpha, co-developed with Northrop Grumman, aimed at the national-security and commercial medium-lift gap between small launchers and heavy-lift vehicles. |
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.