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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | CASC / SAST | Relativity Space | Roscosmos / Progress Rocket Space Centre |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Medium |
| Propellant | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic all stages) | LOX / methane | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| First flight | 1992 | 2026 | 2004 |
| Payload to LEO | 3,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~1,300 kg; standard LEO 3,500 kg | 33,500 kg expendable / 23,500 kg with a reusable first stageas of [1]First flight targeted 2026 (stated plan, not yet confirmed flown as of this research). ↑ Best | 8,200 kgas of [1]Soyuz-2.1b with Fregat upper stage; 2.1a variant ~7,020 kg LEO |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | 3,250 kgas of [1]With Fregat-M upper stage ↑ Best |
| Height | 41.06 mas of [1] | 87 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 46.3 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 232 tas of [1] | — | 312 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 98.7%as of [2]~77/78 successes; one known failure (CZ-2D Y7, Mar 1995 upper-stage anomaly) ↑ Best | — | 97%as of [2]~160/165 mission successes since 2004 per aggregated launch logs |
| Total flights | ~78as of [2] | — | ~165as of [2] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$55M per launch (estimate)as of [1]Total launch price estimate, not a per-kg figure. ↓ 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. | Relativity Space's Falcon-9-class successor to Terran 1, partially 3D-printed, with 13 Aeon R methalox engines on a reusable first stage; second stage and fairing expendable. | Russia's primary medium-lift workhorse, descended from the Soyuz family that has flown since 1966. Carries both crewed Soyuz spacecraft and Cygnus-class cargo. Fregat upper stage significantly expands mission flexibility. Production continues at Samara (now TsSKB-Progress). |
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.