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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | Electron 🇳🇿 New Zealand / USA Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Active · Last updated 2026-06-28Remove × | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | LandSpace | Rocket Lab | Galactic Energy |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇳🇿 New Zealand / USA | 🇨🇳 China |
| Status | Active | Active | Active |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Small | Small |
| Propellant | CH₄ / LOX (Tianque-12 + Tianque-15 upper stage) | RP-1 / LOX | Solid (stages 1–3) + hydrazine liquid upper stage |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| First flight | 2022 | 2017 | 2020 |
| Payload to LEO | 6,000 kgas of [1]SSO capacity ~4,000 kg ↑ Best | 300 kgas of [1]~200 kg reusable mode (lower due to propellant reserved for re-entry burn) | 400 kgas of [1]300 kg to SSO. |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | — |
| Height | 49.5 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 18 mas of [1] | 20 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | 219 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 13 tas of [1] | 33 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 75%as of [2]3/4 full successes; ZQ-2 Y1 (Dec 2022) reached orbit on stage 1 but 2nd stage failed; ZQ-2 Y2 (Jul 2023) SUCCESS — world's first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit | 95.6%as of [3]87 successes / 91 Electron-family flights. Orbital Electron alone: 78/82 (95.1%). HASTE: 9/9. On a 50-flight success streak since December 2023; 21/21 in the 2025 calendar year. ↑ Best | 91.3% (21/23)as of [1] |
| Total flights | 4as of [2] | 91as of [3]91 Electron-family flights: 82 orbital plus 9 suborbital HASTE. Reconciled against three 10-K cumulative checkpoints (38/54/75 successes through 2023/2024/2025). Rocket Lab counts HASTE inside its own 'Electron launched N times' figure. ↑ Best | 23as of [1] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$25,000/kgas of [1]Based on ~$7.5M list price / 300 kg payload | ~$4.5M per launchas of [1]Total launch price, not a per-kg figure. ↓ Cheapest |
| Summary | The world's first methane-fueled rocket to achieve orbit (July 12, 2023), beating SpaceX Starship to that milestone. A commercial Chinese rocket built by LandSpace with vertically-integrated methane propulsion — the same propellant strategy as Starship, Neutron, and Terran R. | The world's most commercially active small launch vehicle, designed and built in-house at Rocket Lab. Rutherford engines are the first flight-proven engines made with additive manufacturing (metal 3D printing). Booster recovery via parachute and helicopter catch (later transitioned to ocean recovery). | 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. |
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.