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 | Khrunichev / Roscosmos | Galactic Energy | PLD Space |
| Country | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇨🇳 China | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| Status | Retired | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Small | Small |
| Propellant | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| First flight | 2001 – 2023 | 2020 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 22,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. | 1,080 kgas of [1]540 kg to SSO. First flight is a stated plan (targeted Q1 2026 as of this research; not yet confirmed flown) — treat as a target, not a fact. |
| Payload to GTO | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best | — | — |
| Height | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 20 mas of [1] | 35.7 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 712 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 33 tas of [1] | 69 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Total flights | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best | 23as of [1] | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | — |
| Summary | 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. | Galactic Energy's workhorse small-lift solid rocket — one of the most-flown Chinese commercial launchers — with a sea-launch variant (Ceres-1S, debuted Sep 2023) and a larger Ceres-2 in development. | PLD Space's orbital small launcher with a recoverable first stage (engine thrust + parachutes), developed with ESA Future Launchers Preparatory Programme support; primary launch site is the Guiana Space Centre. |
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.