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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | Rocket Lab | Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) / CASC |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Medium | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (3 stages) + liquid upper stage | CH₄ / LOX | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2026 | 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 1,500 kgas of [1] | 13,000 kgas of [1]Reusable configuration with downrange barge landing — this is the single payload figure Rocket Lab publishes. ~15,000 kg expendable. ↑ Best | 12,000 kgas of [1]At 200 km altitude; 10,000 kg at 300 km. |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | — | 43 mas of [1] | 62 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 78 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable. | ~481 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 433 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 80% (4/5)as of [1]Debut flight (2020-07-10) failed; returned to flight 2022-12-07 successfully. | — | 100% (6/6)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 5as of [1] | — | 6as of [1]All six flights deployed Guowang (China SatNet) internet-constellation satellites, exclusively from Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site. ↑ 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. | Rocket Lab's medium-lift reusable rocket targeting the $100B constellation replenishment market. Uses a 'hungry hippo' fairings design that opens at the top rather than traditional clamshell separation. First flight delayed to Q4 2026 after a Jan 2026 propellant tank test anomaly. | A medium-lift, kerosene/LOX launcher built specifically to deploy China's Guowang mega-constellation at high cadence from Wenchang's new commercial pads. |
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.