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 | RKTs Progress | Relativity Space | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) |
| Country | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | In Development | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Small |
| Propellant | RP-1 / LOX | LOX / methane | Solid (3 stages) + liquid-fueled 4th stage |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| First flight | 2026 | 2026 | 2017 |
| Payload to LEO | 18,000 kgas of [1]Uncrewed configuration. | 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 | 400 kgas of [1] |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 61.9 m (uncrewed) / 65.9 m (crewed variant)as of [1] | 87 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 19.4 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 530 tas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 30 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable — road-mobile solid launcher. |
| Success rate | — | — | ~85% (23 successes, 3 failures, 1 partial failure of 27)as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 1 (suborbital test)as of [1]First flight 2026-04-30 was a suborbital test, not yet a full orbital mission per this source. | — | 27as of [1] ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$55M per launch (estimate)as of [1]Total launch price estimate, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | — |
| Summary | Russia's replacement for the Ukrainian-built Zenit, restoring medium-lift capability lost after 2014. Uses the RD-171MV — described as the most powerful liquid-fuel rocket engine in the world — on its first stage, launching from Baikonur. | 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. | CASIC's road-mobile, quick-response small solid launcher, operated commercially by ExPace since 2017 — one of the higher-cadence Chinese small-lift vehicles. |
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.