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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | CASC / SAST | Khrunichev / Roscosmos | ISRO |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇮🇳 India |
| Status | Active | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Medium |
| Propellant | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic all stages) | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) | Solid (PS1/PS3) + UDMH/N₂O₄ (PS2/PS4) — 4 alternating stages |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| First flight | 1992 | 2001 – 2023 | 1993 |
| Payload to LEO | 3,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~1,300 kg; standard LEO 3,500 kg | 22,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 3,800 kgas of [1]PSLV-XL with 6 extended solid strap-ons. Standard PSLV-G: 3,250 kg LEO. SSO: ~1,750 kg |
| Payload to GTO | — | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best | — |
| Height | 41.06 mas of [1] | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 44 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 232 tas of [1] | 712 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 320 tas of [1]PSLV-XL configuration |
| Success rate | 98.7%as of [2]~77/78 successes; one known failure (CZ-2D Y7, Mar 1995 upper-stage anomaly) ↑ Best | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations | 93.7%as of [2]60/64 mission successes. Two consecutive recent failures: C61 (2024) and C62 (Jan 12, 2026, stage-3 anomaly, 16 satellites lost). |
| Total flights | ~78as of [2] | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best | 64as of [2] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$4,000/kgas of [1]Estimated from commercial launch contracts ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | China's most-used sun-synchronous and polar orbit workhorse for small-to-medium military and commercial Earth observation satellites. Launched from Jiuquan and Taiyuan. Uses storable hypergolic propellants for high launch-readiness but produces toxic exhaust. | Russia's dominant heavy-lift rocket for GEO comsats and planetary missions from 1965 (Proton family) through 2023 (Proton-M). Notorious for its hypergolic propellant — a highly toxic UDMH/N₂O₄ combination that caused environmental concerns at Baikonur. Replaced by Angara A5. | India's most reliable and frequently flown launch vehicle, operational since 1994. Set a world record in Feb 2017 by deploying 104 satellites in a single flight (Cartosat-2D + 103 microsats). Launched Chandrayaan-1 (2008), Mars Orbiter Mission (2013), and Aditya-L1 (2023). The dual C61/C62 failure streak raised concerns about aging solid motor design. |
28 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.