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 | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | Interstellar Technologies | SpaceX |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Small | Heavy |
| Propellant | Solid (3 stages) + liquid upper stage | Liquid biomethane (LBM) / LOX | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2020 | 2027 | 2018 |
| Payload to LEO | 1,500 kgas of [1] | 250 kgas of [1]500 km SSO. No flight attempts as of this research — follows the company's successful suborbital MOMO sounding-rocket program. A larger orbital vehicle, DECA, was announced January 2023. | 63,800 kgas of [1]Expended side boosters. Fully reusable ~27,500 kg LEO. ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | 26,700 kgas of [1]Expendable configuration; reusable ~8,000 kg ↑ Best |
| Height | — | — | 70 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 78 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable. | — | 1,421 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 | — | 100%as of [2]12/12 mission successes through Falcon Heavy ViaSat-3 F3 (Apr 29, 2026) |
| Total flights | 5as of [1] | — | 12as of [2] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$1,400/kgas of [1]Based on ~$97M list price / 63,800 kg (expendable 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. | A liquid-biomethane orbital smallsat launcher from Interstellar Technologies, Japan's most established private rocket startup by suborbital flight heritage, though not yet flown to orbit. | Currently the most powerful operational rocket in the world. Three Falcon 9 cores sharing propellant cross-feed produce 5.1 MN of sea-level thrust. Primary mission profile: DoD/NRO GEO payloads and planetary science. |
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.