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The global launch market reached $14.1 billion in 2024 — up 34% since 2021.
| Attribute | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Company | LandSpace | RKTs Progress | Arianespace / ArianeGroup |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇪🇺 Europe |
| Status | Active | Active | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Medium | Heavy |
| Propellant | Methalox (LOX / liquid methane) | RP-1 / LOX | LH₂ / LOX (Vulcain 2) + solid HTPB boosters |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2024 | 2026 | 1996 – 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. | 18,000 kgas of [1]Uncrewed configuration. | 21,000 kgas of [1]Ariane 5 ECA configuration ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | — | 10,865 kgas of [1]ECA configuration. Ariane 5 ES (ATV) variant: 21,000 kg LEO ↑ Best |
| Height | — | 61.9 m (uncrewed) / 65.9 m (crewed variant)as of [1] ↑ Best | 54 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | — | 530 tas of [1] | 777 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 100% since 2024-11-27 debutas of [1] ↑ Best | — | 97.5%as of [2]113/117 successes. Failures: V501 (Jun 1996, first flight), V63 (Dec 2002, off-course but payload recovered). 2 partial successes. |
| Total flights | 2+ (2E variant)as of [1] | 1 (suborbital test)as of [1]First flight 2026-04-30 was a suborbital test, not yet a full orbital mission per this source. | 117as of [2]VA261 (Jul 5, 2023) was the final Ariane 5 flight. Launched the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 2021). ↑ Best |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| 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. | Russia's replacement for the Ukrainian-built Zenit, restoring medium-lift capability lost after 2014. Uses the RD-171MV — described as the most powerful liquid-fuel rocket engine in the world — on its first stage, launching from Baikonur. | Europe's dominant heavy-lift rocket for 27 years. Its most famous payload: the James Webb Space Telescope (Dec 25, 2021). Retired Jul 5, 2023 to make way for Ariane 6. Responsible for launching over 250 commercial and scientific payloads including XMM-Newton, Rosetta, and BepiColombo. |
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.