Pick up to 4 launch vehicles to compare side-by-side. State lives in the URL — share the link and the comparison loads exactly as you left it.
The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Rocket Lab | SpaceX | LandSpace |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | In Development | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Medium |
| Propellant | CH₄ / LOX | RP-1 / LOX | CH₄ / LOX (Tianque-12 + Tianque-15 upper stage) |
| Reusable | Yes | Yes | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2026 | 2018 | 2022 |
| Payload to LEO | 13,000 kgas of [1]Expendable; ~8,000 kg reusable with first-stage return | 63,800 kgas of [1]Expended side boosters. Fully reusable ~27,500 kg LEO. ↑ Best | 6,000 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~4,000 kg |
| Payload to GTO | — | 26,700 kgas of [1]Expendable configuration; reusable ~8,000 kg ↑ Best | — |
| Height | ~40 mas of [1] | 70 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 49.5 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | ~481 tas of [1] | 1,421 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 219 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | — | 100%as of [2]12/12 mission successes through Falcon Heavy ViaSat-3 F3 (Apr 29, 2026) ↑ Best | 75%as of [2]3/4 full successes; ZQ-2 Y1 (Dec 2022) reached orbit on stage 1 but 2nd stage failed; ZQ-2 Y2 (Jul 2023) SUCCESS — world's first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit |
| Total flights | — | 12as of [2] ↑ Best | 4as of [2] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$1,400/kgas of [1]Based on ~$97M list price / 63,800 kg (expendable configuration) ↓ Cheapest | — |
| Summary | Rocket Lab's medium-lift reusable rocket targeting the $100B constellation replenishment market. Uses a 'hungry hippo' fairings design that opens at the top rather than traditional clamshell separation. First flight delayed to Q4 2026 after a Jan 2026 propellant tank test anomaly. | Currently the most powerful operational rocket in the world. Three Falcon 9 cores sharing propellant cross-feed produce 5.1 MN of sea-level thrust. Primary mission profile: DoD/NRO GEO payloads and planetary science. | The world's first methane-fueled rocket to achieve orbit (July 12, 2023), beating SpaceX Starship to that milestone. A commercial Chinese rocket built by LandSpace with vertically-integrated methane propulsion — the same propellant strategy as Starship, Neutron, and Terran R. |
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.