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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) / CASC | Avio | Galactic Energy |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Small | Small |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX | Solid (P160C first stage) / LOX-methane (cryogenic upper stage) | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| First flight | 2024 | 2027 | 2020 |
| Payload to LEO | 12,000 kgas of [1]At 200 km altitude; 10,000 kg at 300 km. ↑ Best | — | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 62 mas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 20 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 433 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 33 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 100% (6/6)as of [1] ↑ Best | — | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] |
| Total flights | 6as of [1]All six flights deployed Guowang (China SatNet) internet-constellation satellites, exclusively from Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site. | — | 23as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | A medium-lift, kerosene/LOX launcher built specifically to deploy China's Guowang mega-constellation at high cadence from Wenchang's new commercial pads. | The next evolution of ESA's Vega line: replaces the Zefiro-9 and AVUM+ stages with a single cryogenic LOX/methane upper stage powered by the new M10 engine, adding multi-orbit deployment flexibility. First flight is a stated target (2027), not yet flown. | Galactic Energy's workhorse small-lift solid rocket — one of the most-flown Chinese commercial launchers — with a sea-launch variant (Ceres-1S, debuted Sep 2023) and a larger Ceres-2 in development. |
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.