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 | Nuri (KSLV-II) 🇰🇷 South Korea Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-06-01Remove × | Long March 8 (incl. 8A) 🇨🇳 China Trust: Operator-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-07-26Remove × | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | KARI / Hanwha Aerospace | China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) / CASC | Khrunichev / Roscosmos |
| Country | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 🇨🇳 China | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Status | Active | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX (KRE-075 engines all stages) | RP-1 / LOX (stage 1); LH2/LOX (stage 2) | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| First flight | 2021 | 2020 | 2001 – 2023 |
| Payload to LEO | 2,600 kgas of [1]600 km SSO target orbit | 8,100 kgas of [1]5,000 kg to 700 km SSO (base); the enlarged-second-stage 8A variant (first flew 2025-02-11) lifts 7,000 kg to the same SSO reference orbit. | 22,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best |
| Height | 47.2 mas of [1] | 50.3 mas of [1] | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 200 tas of [1] | 356 t (base); 371 t (8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | 712 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 75%as of [2]3/4 full successes: TF1 (Oct 2021) partial, TF2 (Jun 2022) success, TF3 (May 2023) success, TF4 (Nov 27, 2025 — first Hanwha-led production launch) success | 100% (16/16 combined base + 8A)as of [1] ↑ Best | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations |
| Total flights | 4as of [2] | 16 (base + 8A combined)as of [1] ↑ Best | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | South Korea's first domestically developed and produced launch vehicle, designed entirely without foreign engine technology. Nuri TF4 (Nov 2025) was the first launch managed by Hanwha Aerospace rather than KARI — marking the transition to commercial operation. KASA (Korea Aerospace Administration) took over programme oversight in 2024. | A two-stage medium-lift launcher originally designed with a reusable combined-booster-recovery concept in mind, though currently operational vehicles fly expendable. Exclusively from Wenchang. | Russia's dominant heavy-lift rocket for GEO comsats and planetary missions from 1965 (Proton family) through 2023 (Proton-M). Notorious for its hypergolic propellant — a highly toxic UDMH/N₂O₄ combination that caused environmental concerns at Baikonur. Replaced by Angara A5. |
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.