Side-by-side specs, payload capacity, cost, reusability and live flight data for every major rocket flying today — from Electron to Starship.
All 14 vehicles drawn to the same scale. Starship at 121 m dwarfs Electron's 18 m — a 6.7× difference in height and orders of magnitude in payload capacity.
Click any column header to sort. All payload figures are maximum capacity to the stated orbit. Cost data is estimated where publicly available. Flights and Last Launch are computed live from our launch database — exact, and never stale.
| Vehicle ▲ | Country ▲ | Class ▲ | Height ▲ | LEO (kg) ▲ | Flights ▲ | Reusable ▲ | First Flight ▲ | Status ▲ | Last Launch ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falcon 9 | 🇺🇸 United States | Medium | 70 m | 22,800 | 700 | ✓ 1st stage | 2010 | Active | 31 Oct 2026 |
| Falcon Heavy | 🇺🇸 United States | Heavy | 70 m | 63,800 | 14 | ✓ Boosters | 2018 | Active | 2 Oct 2026 |
| Starship | 🇺🇸 United States | Super heavy | 121 m | 150,000 | 14 | ✓ Both stages | 2023 | Dev | 28 Sept 2026 |
| SLS | 🇺🇸 United States | Super heavy | 98 m | 95,000 | 2 | ✗ Expendable | 2022 | Active | 1 Apr 2026 |
| New Glenn | 🇺🇸 United States | Heavy | 98 m | 45,000 | 4 | ✓ 1st stage | 2025 | Active | 29 May 2026 |
| New Shepard | 🇺🇸 United States | Suborbital | 18 m | — | 25 | ✓ Fully | 2015 | Active | — |
| Long March 5B | 🇨🇳 China | Heavy | 54 m | 25,000 | 7 | ✗ Expendable | 2020 | Active | 13 Aug 2025 |
| Ariane 6 | 🇪🇺 Europe | Med–Heavy | 63 m | 21,650 | 9 | ✗ Expendable | 2024 | Active | 27 Aug 2026 |
| Soyuz | 🇷🇺 Russia | Medium | 46 m | 8,200 | 1,183 | ✗ Expendable | 1966 | Active | 17 Sept 2026 |
| PSLV | 🇮🇳 India | Medium | 44 m | 3,800 | 64 | ✗ Expendable | 1993 | Active | 12 Jan 2026 |
| Electron | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | Small | 18 m | 300 | 89 | ✓ Recovery | 2017 | Active | 23 Oct 2026 |
| Vulcan Centaur | 🇺🇸 United States | Heavy | 62 m | 27,200 | 4 | ✗ Expendable | 2024 | Active | 12 Feb 2026 |
| H3 | 🇯🇵 Japan | Med–Heavy | 63 m | 16,000 | 10 | ✗ Expendable | 2024 | Active | 19 Oct 2026 |
| Vega-C | 🇪🇺 Europe | Small–Med | 35 m | 2,350 | 8 | ✗ Expendable | 2022 | RTF | 15 Sept 2026 |
Some rockets are dynasties, not single vehicles. Family hubs cover every variant with live flight records.
Detailed profiles with full specifications, flight history, engine data, mission roadmaps and live launch data. Each page links to relevant launch schedule entries, launch log records and spaceport profiles.
Orbital Radar. (2026, November 3). Launch Vehicles — Every Active Rocket Compared. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles
“Launch Vehicles — Every Active Rocket Compared.” Orbital Radar, 3 Nov. 2026, orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles. Accessed 3 Nov. 2026.
Orbital Radar (2026) Launch Vehicles — Every Active Rocket Compared. Available at: https://orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles (Accessed: 3 November 2026).
Orbital Radar. “Launch Vehicles — Every Active Rocket Compared.” Last modified November 3, 2026. https://orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles.
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author = {{Orbital Radar}},
title = {Launch Vehicles — Every Active Rocket Compared},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
howpublished = {\url{https://orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles}},
url = {https://orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles},
urldate = {2026-11-03},
note = {Accessed 2026-11-03}
}TY - ELEC AU - Orbital Radar, TI - Launch Vehicles — Every Active Rocket Compared PY - 2026 DA - 2026/11/03 PB - Orbital Radar UR - https://orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles Y2 - 2026/11/03 LA - en ER -
Live figures change, so keep the date you accessed the page. How to cite Orbital Radar