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 | Roscosmos / Progress Rocket Space Centre | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | Relativity Space |
| Country | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Small | Heavy |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX | Solid (3 stages) + liquid-fueled 4th stage | LOX / methane |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| First flight | 2004 | 2017 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 8,200 kgas of [1]Soyuz-2.1b with Fregat upper stage; 2.1a variant ~7,020 kg LEO | 400 kgas of [1] | 33,500 kg expendable / 23,500 kg with a reusable first stageas of [1]First flight targeted 2026 (stated plan, not yet confirmed flown as of this research). ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | 3,250 kgas of [1]With Fregat-M upper stage ↑ Best | — | — |
| Height | 46.3 mas of [1] | 19.4 mas of [1] | 87 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | 312 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 30 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable — road-mobile solid launcher. | — |
| Success rate | 97%as of [2]~160/165 mission successes since 2004 per aggregated launch logs | ~85% (23 successes, 3 failures, 1 partial failure of 27)as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Total flights | ~165as of [2] ↑ Best | 27as of [1] | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | ~$55M per launch (estimate)as of [1]Total launch price estimate, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | Russia's primary medium-lift workhorse, descended from the Soyuz family that has flown since 1966. Carries both crewed Soyuz spacecraft and Cygnus-class cargo. Fregat upper stage significantly expands mission flexibility. Production continues at Samara (now TsSKB-Progress). | CASIC's road-mobile, quick-response small solid launcher, operated commercially by ExPace since 2017 — one of the higher-cadence Chinese small-lift vehicles. | Relativity Space's Falcon-9-class successor to Terran 1, partially 3D-printed, with 13 Aeon R methalox engines on a reusable first stage; second stage and fairing expendable. |
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.