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 | NASA / Boeing | Gilmour Space Technologies | LandSpace |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇦🇺 Australia | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Super Heavy | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | LH₂ / LOX (RS-25); solid HTPB (SRBs) | Hybrid (Sirius motors, stages 1–2) / liquid (Phoenix engine, stage 3) | Methalox (LOX / liquid methane) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2022 | 2025 | 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 95,000 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 300 kgas of [1] | 6,000 kgas of [1]4,000 kg to 500 km SSO. Enhanced variant of the base Zhuque-2 with a common-bulkhead tank, TQ-15 thrust-vectoring engine on stage 2, and a niobium-alloy nozzle extension. A further-improved Block 2 first flew 2026-05-14 with subcooled propellant loading and a 3-ignition second stage. |
| Payload to GTO | 27,000 kgas of [1]Trans-lunar injection (TLI) payload; GTO not a primary design goal ↑ Best | — | — |
| Height | 98.1 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 25 mas of [1] | — |
| Liftoff mass | 2,608 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — | — |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]2/2: Artemis I uncrewed (Nov 16, 2022) + Artemis II crewed lunar flyby (Apr 1–10, 2026) | 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. | 100% since 2024-11-27 debutas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 2as of [2] | 1as of [1] | 2+ (2E variant)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$40,000+/kgas of [3]NASA OIG (2023) estimated $4.1B per Artemis SLS/Orion flight; total program $23B+ development cost ↓ Cheapest | — | — |
| Summary | 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. | 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. | LandSpace's enhanced methalox launcher, the higher-performance successor to the original Zhuque-2 (the first methalox rocket ever to reach orbit, in 2023) — see slug 'zhuque-2' for the original vehicle already in our database. |
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.