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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | LandSpace | SpaceX | Khrunichev / Roscosmos |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇺🇸 USA | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Status | Active | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Heavy |
| Propellant | Methalox (LOX / liquid methane) | RP-1 / LOX | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) |
| Reusable | No | Yes | No |
| Stages | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| First flight | 2024 | 2018 | 2001 – 2023 |
| Payload to LEO | 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. | 63,800 kgas of [1]Expended side boosters. Fully reusable ~27,500 kg LEO. ↑ Best | 22,400 kgas of [1] |
| Payload to GTO | — | 26,700 kgas of [1]Expendable configuration; reusable ~8,000 kg ↑ Best | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage |
| Height | — | 70 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 58.2 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | — | 1,421 tas of [1] ↑ Best | 712 tas of [1] |
| Success rate | 100% since 2024-11-27 debutas of [1] ↑ Best | 100%as of [2]12/12 mission successes through Falcon Heavy ViaSat-3 F3 (Apr 29, 2026) | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations |
| Total flights | 2+ (2E variant)as of [1] | 12as of [2] | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | ~$1,400/kgas of [1]Based on ~$97M list price / 63,800 kg (expendable configuration) ↓ Cheapest | — |
| Summary | 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. | Currently the most powerful operational rocket in the world. Three Falcon 9 cores sharing propellant cross-feed produce 5.1 MN of sea-level thrust. Primary mission profile: DoD/NRO GEO payloads and planetary science. | 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.