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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | Space One | JAXA / IHI Aerospace |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Status | Active | In Development | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Small | Small | Small |
| Propellant | Solid (3 stages) + liquid upper stage | Solid | Solid (HTPB — all stages) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2024 | 2013 – 2022 |
| Payload to LEO | 1,500 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 590 kgas of [1]500 kg to SSO. Enhanced Epsilon (from E-4) added 700 kg LEO via PBS liquid kick stage. |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | — | — | 26 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 78 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable. | — | 96 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 80% (4/5)as of [1]Debut flight (2020-07-10) failed; returned to flight 2022-12-07 successfully. ↑ Best | 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. | 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. |
| Total flights | 5as of [1] | 3as of [1] | 6as of [2] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | The larger sibling of Kuaizhou-1A, roughly 3.75x the payload class, road-mobile and solid-fueled, recovering commercial cadence after a 2020 debut failure. | 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. | 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. |
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.