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 | RKTs Progress | Relativity Space |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | In Development | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | CH₄ / LOX | RP-1 / LOX | LOX / methane |
| Reusable | Yes | No | Yes |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2026 | 2026 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 13,000 kgas of [1]Reusable configuration with downrange barge landing — this is the single payload figure Rocket Lab publishes. ~15,000 kg expendable. | 18,000 kgas of [1]Uncrewed configuration. | 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 |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 43 mas of [1] | 61.9 m (uncrewed) / 65.9 m (crewed variant)as of [1] | 87 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | ~481 tas of [1] | 530 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Success rate | — | — | — |
| Total flights | — | 1 (suborbital test)as of [1]First flight 2026-04-30 was a suborbital test, not yet a full orbital mission per this source. ↑ Best | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$55M per launch (estimate)as of [1]Total launch price estimate, not a per-kg figure. ↓ 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. | Russia's replacement for the Ukrainian-built Zenit, restoring medium-lift capability lost after 2014. Uses the RD-171MV — described as the most powerful liquid-fuel rocket engine in the world — on its first stage, launching from Baikonur. | 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. |
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.