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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | SpaceX | LandSpace |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Super Heavy | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (3 stages) + liquid upper stage | CH₄ / LOX | Methalox (LOX / liquid methane) |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 1,500 kgas of [1] | ~150,000 kgas of [1]SpaceX projected max payload in fully expendable mode; ~100,000 kg reusable ↑ Best | 6,000 kgas of [1]4,000 kg to 500 km SSO. Enhanced variant of the base Zhuque-2 with a common-bulkhead tank, TQ-15 thrust-vectoring engine on stage 2, and a niobium-alloy nozzle extension. A further-improved Block 2 first flew 2026-05-14 with subcooled propellant loading and a 3-ignition second stage. |
| Payload to GTO | — | ~21,000 kgas of [1]Reusable configuration estimate ↑ Best | — |
| Height | — | 121 mas of [1]Version 2 (V2) full stack Ship + Super Heavy ↑ Best | — |
| Liftoff mass | 78 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable. | ~5,000 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. | ~50%as of [2]Flights 1-12; ~6 complete mission successes (incl. Flights 10 and 11), remainder partial or vehicle lost. First payload deploy on Flight 10 (Aug 2025); Flight 12 (V3 debut) lost during descent. | 100% since 2024-11-27 debutas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 5as of [1] | 12as of [2]Flight 1 (Apr 2023) through Flight 12 (May 22, 2026 — V3 debut from Pad 2). Flight 11 (Oct 13, 2025) closed out Block 2. | 2+ (2E variant)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$600/kgas of [1]SpaceX target figure; not yet achieved in operational configuration ↓ Cheapest | — |
| 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. | Largest and most powerful rocket ever flown. Super Heavy booster uses 33 Raptor engines. V3 Ship debuted on Flight 12 (May 22, 2026) from Starbase Pad 2 — it reached space but broke up at the ocean surface, and the vehicle is grounded pending an FAA mishap review. Mechazilla booster catches demonstrated from Flight 5 (Oct 2024) onward; first payload deploy on Flight 10 (Aug 2025). Primary vehicle for the Artemis HLS lunar lander (Artemis III LEO docking demo 2027, first landing on Artemis IV). | LandSpace's enhanced methalox launcher, the higher-performance successor to the original Zhuque-2 (the first methalox rocket ever to reach orbit, in 2023) — see slug 'zhuque-2' for the original vehicle already in our database. |
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.