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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | CASC / CALT | United Launch Alliance | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Small |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX (YF-100 + YF-115) | LH2 / LOX | Solid (3 stages) + liquid upper stage |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| First flight | 2016 | 2004 – 2024 | 2020 |
| Payload to LEO | 13,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~5,500 kg | 28,370 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 1,500 kgas of [1] |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 53.1 mas of [1] | 70.7 mas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Liftoff mass | 597 tas of [1] | 733 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 78 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable. |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]12/12 missions, all Tianzhou ISS resupply or CZ-7 tech demo flights | 93.75% (15/16 full success, 1 partial failure)as of [1] | 80% (4/5)as of [1]Debut flight (2020-07-10) failed; returned to flight 2022-12-07 successfully. ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 12as of [2]Most recently Tianzhou-10 cargo to Tiangong (May 11, 2026) | 16as of [1] ↑ Best | 5as of [1] |
| 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. | ULA's triple-common-booster-core heavy-lift launcher, retired 2024-04-09 after its final flight; superseded by Vulcan Centaur, which ULA states offers similar heavy-lift capability at lower cost. | The larger sibling of Kuaizhou-1A, roughly 3.75x the payload class, road-mobile and solid-fueled, recovering commercial cadence after a 2020 debut failure. |
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.