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 | ULA | Galactic Energy | LandSpace |
| Country | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇨🇳 China | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Heavy | Small | Medium |
| Propellant | LNG / LOX (BE-4); LH₂ / LOX (Centaur V) | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage | Methalox (LOX / liquid methane) |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| First flight | 2024 | 2020 | 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 27,200 kgas of [1]VC2S configuration (2 solid strap-on boosters) ↑ Best | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. | 6,000 kgas of [1]4,000 kg to 500 km SSO. Enhanced variant of the base Zhuque-2 with a common-bulkhead tank, TQ-15 thrust-vectoring engine on stage 2, and a niobium-alloy nozzle extension. A further-improved Block 2 first flew 2026-05-14 with subcooled propellant loading and a 3-ignition second stage. |
| Payload to GTO | 14,400 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | — | — |
| Height | 61.6 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 20 mas of [1] | — |
| Liftoff mass | 591 tas of [1]VC2S configuration ↑ Best | 33 tas of [1] | — |
| 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) | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] | 100% since 2024-11-27 debutas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Total flights | 4as of [2] | 23as of [1] ↑ Best | 2+ (2E variant)as of [1] |
| Cost / kg LEO | ~$5,500/kgas of [1]Estimated; list pricing not public. Priced below Atlas V, above Ariane 6. | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest | — |
| Summary | 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. | Galactic Energy's workhorse small-lift solid rocket — one of the most-flown Chinese commercial launchers — with a sea-launch variant (Ceres-1S, debuted Sep 2023) and a larger Ceres-2 in development. | LandSpace's enhanced methalox launcher, the higher-performance successor to the original Zhuque-2 (the first methalox rocket ever to reach orbit, in 2023) — see slug 'zhuque-2' for the original vehicle already in our database. |
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.