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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Relativity Space | ULA | Khrunichev / Roscosmos |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Status | In Development | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Heavy | Heavy |
| Propellant | LOX / methane | LNG / LOX (BE-4); LH₂ / LOX (Centaur V) | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) |
| Reusable | Yes | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| First flight | 2026 | 2024 | 2001 – 2023 |
| Payload to LEO | 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 | 27,200 kgas of [1]VC2S configuration (2 solid strap-on boosters) | 22,400 kgas of [1] |
| Payload to GTO | — | 14,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage |
| Height | 87 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 61.6 mas of [1] | 58.2 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | — | 591 tas of [1]VC2S configuration | 712 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | — | 100%as of [2]4/4 payloads delivered: Cert-1 (Jan 2024), Cert-2 (Oct 2024, SRB nozzle anomaly), USSF-106 (Aug 13, 2025 — flight 3, first NSSL mission), USSF-87 (Feb 12, 2026 — flight 4, second SRB nozzle anomaly; Space Force paused Vulcan launches, RTF ~late 2026) ↑ Best | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations |
| Total flights | — | 4as of [2] | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$55M per launch (estimate)as of [1]Total launch price estimate, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | ~$5,500/kgas of [1]Estimated; list pricing not public. Priced below Atlas V, above Ariane 6. | — |
| Summary | 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. | ULA's next-generation medium-heavy rocket replacing Atlas V. Powered by two BE-4 engines on the first stage and a cryogenic Centaur V upper stage. NSSL-certified March 2025; first NSSL mission USSF-106 flew Aug 13, 2025. Paused by the Space Force after the USSF-87 SRB nozzle anomaly (Feb 12, 2026), with return to flight expected ~late 2026. | 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. |
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.