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 | LandSpace | Khrunichev / Roscosmos | United Launch Alliance |
| Country | 🇨🇳 China | 🇷🇺 Russia | 🇺🇸 USA |
| Status | Active | Retired | Retired |
| Vehicle class | Medium | Heavy | Heavy |
| Propellant | CH₄ / LOX (9× TQ-12B first stage; TQ-15B vacuum upper stage) | UDMH / N₂O₄ (hypergolic — all stages) | LH2 / LOX |
| Reusable | Yes | No | No |
| Stages | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| First flight | 2025 | 2001 – 2023 | 2004 – 2024 |
| Payload to LEO | 21,000 kgas of [1]Expendable; ~18,300 kg with first-stage recovery | 22,400 kgas of [1] | 28,370 kgas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Payload to GTO | — | 6,290 kgas of [1]With Briz-M upper stage ↑ Best | — |
| Height | 76.2 mas of [1] ↑ Best | 58.2 mas of [1] | 70.7 mas of [1] |
| Liftoff mass | ~660 tas of [1] | 712 tas of [1] | 733 tas of [1] ↑ Best |
| Success rate | 100%as of [2]1/1 orbital successes (Y1, Dec 3, 2025). First-stage recovery failed — abnormal combustion during the landing burn crashed the booster near the landing zone. ↑ Best | ~91%as of [2]~13 mission failures out of ~115 flights in Proton-M variant; highly toxic propellant complicated recovery operations | 93.75% (15/16 full success, 1 partial failure)as of [1] |
| Total flights | 1as of [3]Second orbital launch and recovery attempt targeted Q2 2026 per LandSpace | ~115as of [2]Effectively retired ~2023 with Russian government replacing it with Angara A5 ↑ Best | 16as of [1] |
| Cost / kg LEO | — | — | — |
| Summary | LandSpace's stainless-steel, reusable methalox rocket — China's closest analogue to Falcon 9. The Y1 debut (Dec 3, 2025) reached orbit on the first attempt but lost the booster during its landing attempt; a second flight with another recovery attempt is targeted for Q2 2026. | 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. | ULA's triple-common-booster-core heavy-lift launcher, retired 2024-04-09 after its final flight; superseded by Vulcan Centaur, which ULA states offers similar heavy-lift capability at lower cost. |
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.