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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | Arianespace / ArianeGroup | Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) / CASC |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Heavy | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (3 stages) + liquid-fueled 4th stage | LH₂ / LOX (Vulcain 2) + solid HTPB boosters | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2017 | 1996 – 2023 | 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 400 kgas of [1] | 21,000 kgas of [1]Ariane 5 ECA configuration ↑ Best | 12,000 kgas of [1]At 200 km altitude; 10,000 kg at 300 km. |
| Payload to GTO | — | 10,865 kgas of [1]ECA configuration. Ariane 5 ES (ATV) variant: 21,000 kg LEO ↑ Best | — |
| Height | 19.4 mas of [1] | 54 mas of [1] | 62 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 30 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable — road-mobile solid launcher. | 777 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 433 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | ~85% (23 successes, 3 failures, 1 partial failure of 27)as of [1] ↑ Best | 97.5%as of [2]113/117 successes. Failures: V501 (Jun 1996, first flight), V63 (Dec 2002, off-course but payload recovered). 2 partial successes. | 100% (6/6)as of [1] |
| Total flights | 27as of [1] | 117as of [2]VA261 (Jul 5, 2023) was the final Ariane 5 flight. Launched the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021). ↑ Best | 6as of [1]All six flights deployed Guowang (China SatNet) internet-constellation satellites, exclusively from Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site. |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | CASIC's road-mobile, quick-response small solid launcher, operated commercially by ExPace since 2017 — one of the higher-cadence Chinese small-lift vehicles. | Europe's dominant heavy-lift rocket for 27 years. Its most famous payload: the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 25, 2021). Retired Jul 5, 2023 to make way for Ariane 6. Responsible for launching over 250 commercial and scientific payloads including XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and BepiColombo. | 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.