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 | Rocket Lab | Blue Origin |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Super Heavy | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | LH₂ / LOX (RS-25); solid HTPB (SRBs) | CH₄ / LOX | LNG / LOX (BE-4); LH₂ / LOX (BE-3U second stage) |
| Reusable | No | Yes | Yes |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2022 | 2026 | 2025 |
| Payload to LEO | 95,000 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 13,000 kgas of [1]Expendable; ~8,000 kg reusable with first-stage return | 45,000 kgas of [1]Reusable first stage; expendable ~45,000 kg. GTO (reusable) ~13,000 kg. |
| Payload to GTO | 27,000 kgas of [1]Trans-lunar injection (TLI) payload; GTO not a primary design goal ↑ Best | — | 13,000 kgas of [1]Reusable first stage configuration |
| Height | 98.1 mas of [1] ↑ Best | ~40 mas of [1] | 98 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 2,608 tas of [1] ↑ Best | ~481 tas of [1] | 1,016 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]2/2: Artemis I uncrewed (Nov 16, 2022) + Artemis II crewed lunar flyby (Apr 1–10, 2026) ↑ Best | — | 67%as of [2]NG-1 (Jan 2025) full mission success, booster lost; NG-2 (Nov 2025) success + first Jacklyn booster landing; NG-3 (Apr 2026) partial — payload in wrong orbit, FAA grounded |
| Total flights | 2as of [2] | — | 3as of [2] ↑ 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 | — | ~$1,500/kgas of [1]Estimated from ~$67M commercial pricing / 45,000 kg payload capacity ↓ 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. | 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. | Blue Origin's first orbital rocket. The 7-meter payload fairing is the widest of any current production rocket. NG-2 (Nov 2025) achieved the company's first booster landing on drone ship Jacklyn. |
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.