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 | Space One | CASC / SAST | SAST (Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology) / CASC |
| Country | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇨🇳 China | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | In Development | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic all stages) | RP-1 / LOX (stages 1–2); N2O4/UDMH (stage 3, base variant) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 3 |
| First flight | 2024 | 1992 | 2015 |
| Payload to LEO | — | 3,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~1,300 kg; standard LEO 3,500 kg | 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 |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | — | 41.06 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 29 m (base variant)as of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | — | 232 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 103 t (base variant)as of [1] |
| Success rate | 0/3 — three consecutive failuresas of [1]2024-03-13: disintegrated shortly after liftoff. 2024-12-18: began tumbling during 1st-stage burn, flight terminated. 2026-03-04: flight termination activated ~70 seconds after liftoff. All three launches flew from Spaceport Kii, Wakayama — Japan's first private-sector spaceport. Program grounded as of this research; precise payload/height/mass specs not confirmed from a primary source. | 98.7%as of [2]~77/78 successes; one known failure (CZ-2D Y7, Mar 1995 upper-stage anomaly) | 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 |
| Total flights | 3as of [1] | ~78as of [2] ↑ Best | 15 (base variant)as of [1] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | A Japanese commercial solid-fuel small launcher that has failed on all three flight attempts through March 2026, putting its commercial viability in serious question. | 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. | 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. |
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.