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 | Gilmour Space Technologies | Firefly Aerospace |
| Country | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇦🇺 Australia | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Retired | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Small | Small |
| Propellant | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) | Hybrid (Sirius motors, stages 1–2) / liquid (Phoenix engine, stage 3) | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2001 – 2023 | 2025 | 2021 |
| Payload to LEO | 22,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 300 kgas of [1] | 1,030 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~630 kg |
| Payload to GTO | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best | — | — |
| Height | 58.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 25 mas of [1] | 29 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 712 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 54 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 ↑ Best | 0/1as of [1]Maiden flight 2025-07-30 crashed 14 seconds after launch (insufficient thrust), from Bowen Orbital Spaceport, Queensland — Australia's first domestic orbital launch attempt. Preceded by two scrubs (2025-05-15 electrical issue, 2025-05-16 fairing anomaly). A second test flight was slated for early 2026. Block 2 (1,000 kg payload) and Eris Heavy (4,000 kg payload) variants are planned. | 43%as of [2]3/7 full successes (FLTA003 Jul 2023, FLTA005 Dec 2024, FLTA007 Mar 2026) + 2 partial successes + 2 failures through FLTA007 |
| Total flights | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best | 1as of [1] | 7as of [2] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$14,500/kgas of [1]Based on ~$15M list price / 1,030 kg LEO ↓ 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. | Australia's first domestically developed orbital launch vehicle attempt, using a hybrid-propellant first and second stage; the maiden flight failed 14 seconds after liftoff in July 2025. | Firefly Aerospace's two-stage small-lift rocket powered by four Reaver engines at sea level and one Lightning engine in vacuum. Also provides launch services for NASA's CLPS programme (Blue Ghost lander launched on Falcon 9). FLTA007 'Stairway to Seven' succeeded Mar 11, 2026. |
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.