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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Company | CASC / CALT | Arianespace / ArianeGroup |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇪🇺 Europe |
| Status | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX (YF-100 + YF-115) | LH₂ / LOX (Vulcain 2) + solid HTPB boosters |
| Reusable | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2016 | 1996 – 2023 |
| Payload to LEO | 13,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~5,500 kg | 21,000 kgas of [1]Ariane 5 ECA configuration ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | 10,865 kgas of [1]ECA configuration. Ariane 5 ES (ATV) variant: 21,000 kg LEO ↑ Best |
| Height | 53.1 mas of [1] | 54 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 597 tas of [1] | 777 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]12/12 missions, all Tianzhou ISS resupply or CZ-7 tech demo flights ↑ 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. |
| Total flights | 12as of [2]Most recently Tianzhou-10 cargo to Tiangong (May 11, 2026) | 117as of [2]VA261 (Jul 5, 2023) was the final Ariane 5 flight. Launched the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021). ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — |
| Summary | China's workhorse medium-lift rocket, used exclusively for Tianzhou automated cargo missions to the Tiangong space station. Designed to replace the Long March 2F for high-cadence LEO/cargo missions. Uses the same YF-100 engines as Long March 5's boosters. | 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. |
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.