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 | Avio | United Launch Alliance | CASC / CALT |
| Country | 🇪🇺 Europe | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | In Development | Retired | Active |
| Vehicle class | Small | Heavy | Medium |
| Propellant | Solid (P160C first stage) / LOX-methane (cryogenic upper stage) | LH2 / LOX | RP-1 / LOX (YF-100 + YF-115) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| First flight | 2027 | 2004 – 2024 | 2016 |
| Payload to LEO | — | 28,370 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 13,500 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~5,500 kg |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | — | 70.7 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 53.1 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | — | 733 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 597 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | — | 93.75% (15/16 full success, 1 partial failure)as of [1] | 100%as of [2]12/12 missions, all Tianzhou ISS resupply or CZ-7 tech demo flights ↑ Best |
| Total flights | — | 16as of [1] ↑ Best | 12as of [2]Most recently Tianzhou-10 cargo to Tiangong (May 11, 2026) |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | The next evolution of ESA's Vega line: replaces the Zefiro-9 and AVUM+ stages with a single cryogenic LOX/methane upper stage powered by the new M10 engine, adding multi-orbit deployment flexibility. First flight is a stated target (2027), not yet flown. | ULA's triple-common-booster-core heavy-lift launcher, retired 2024-04-09 after its final flight; superseded by Vulcan Centaur, which ULA states offers similar heavy-lift capability at lower cost. | China's workhorse medium-lift rocket, used exclusively for Tianzhou automated cargo missions to the Tiangong space station. Designed to replace the Long March 2F for high-cadence LEO/cargo missions. Uses the same YF-100 engines as Long March 5's boosters. |
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.