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 | Avio / Arianespace | NASA / Boeing |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | In Development | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Small | Super Heavy |
| Propellant | CH₄ / LOX | Solid (HTPB + ammonium perchlorate all four stages) | LH₂ / LOX (RS-25); solid HTPB (SRBs) |
| Reusable | Yes | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| First flight | 2026 | 2022 | 2022 |
| Payload to LEO | 13,000 kgas of [1]Expendable; ~8,000 kg reusable with first-stage return | 2,300 kgas of [1]SSO: ~1,700 kg | 95,000 kgas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | 27,000 kgas of [1]Trans-lunar injection (TLI) payload; GTO not a primary design goal ↑ Best |
| Height | ~40 mas of [1] | 35 mas of [1] | 98.1 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | ~481 tas of [1] | 210 tas of [1] | 2,608 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | — | 75%as of [2]6/8 successes; VV22 (Dec 2022) Zefiro-40 failure destroyed Pléiades Neo 5&6; returned to flight VV25 (Dec 2024). 3 successes in 2025. | 100%as of [2]2/2: Artemis I uncrewed (Nov 16, 2022) + Artemis II crewed lunar flyby (Apr 1–10, 2026) ↑ Best |
| Total flights | — | 8as of [2] ↑ Best | 2as of [2] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$16,500/kgas of [1]Based on ~$38M list price / 2,300 kg ↓ Cheapest | ~$40,000+/kgas of [3]NASA OIG (2023) estimated $4.1B per Artemis SLS/Orion flight; total program $23B+ development cost |
| 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. | Europe's primary small satellite launcher derived from Vega. The P120C first-stage motor is shared with Ariane 6's solid strap-on boosters. Avio took over programme management from Arianespace in Dec 2025. | NASA's human deep space launch vehicle for the Artemis programme. Uses heritage RS-25 shuttle main engines (4 per flight, expended). Block 1B with Exploration Upper Stage cancelled Feb 2026; Block 1 will fly through Artemis IV at minimum. |
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.