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 | Interstellar Technologies | ExPace (CASIC subsidiary) | PLD Space |
| Country | 🇯🇵 Japan | 🇨🇳 China | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| Status | In Development | Active | In Development |
| Vehicle class | Small | Small | Small |
| Propellant | Liquid biomethane (LBM) / LOX | Solid (3 stages) + liquid upper stage | RP-1 / LOX |
| Reusable | No | No | Yes |
| Stages | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| First flight | 2027 | 2020 | 2026 |
| Payload to LEO | 250 kgas of [1]500 km SSO. No flight attempts as of this research — follows the company's successful suborbital MOMO sounding-rocket program. A larger orbital vehicle, DECA, was announced January 2023. | 1,500 kgas of [1] ↑ Best | 1,080 kgas of [1]540 kg to SSO. First flight is a stated plan (targeted Q1 2026 as of this research; not yet confirmed flown) — treat as a target, not a fact. |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | — | — | 35.7 mas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Liftoff mass | — | 78 tas of [1]Transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) capable. ↑ Best | 69 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | — | 80% (4/5)as of [1]Debut flight (2020-07-10) failed; returned to flight 2022-12-07 successfully. ↑ Best | — |
| Total flights | — | 5as of [1] ↑ Best | — |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | A liquid-biomethane orbital smallsat launcher from Interstellar Technologies, Japan's most established private rocket startup by suborbital flight heritage, though not yet flown to orbit. | The larger sibling of Kuaizhou-1A, roughly 3.75x the payload class, road-mobile and solid-fueled, recovering commercial cadence after a 2020 debut failure. | PLD Space's orbital small launcher with a recoverable first stage (engine thrust + parachutes), developed with ESA Future Launchers Preparatory Programme support; primary launch site is the Guiana Space Centre. |
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.