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🚀 Launch Vehicle Directory

Launch Vehicles — Every Active Rocket Compared

Side-by-side specs, payload capacity, cost, reusability and live flight data for every major rocket flying today — from Electron to Starship.

2,500+
Combined Launches (All Time)
80+
Launches This Year
14
Active Vehicles
8
Countries / Blocs
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Height Comparison — Every Rocket to Scale

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.

0 m 50 m 100 m 18m Electron 18m N.Shepard 35m Vega-C 44m PSLV 46m Soyuz 54m LM-5B 62m Vulcan 63m H3 63m Ariane 6 70m Falcon 9 70m F. Heavy 98m SLS 98m N.Glenn 121m Starship
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Comparison Table — All Vehicles

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 StatesMedium70 m22,800687✓ 1st stage2010Active13 Sept 2026
Falcon Heavy🇺🇸 United StatesHeavy70 m63,80013✓ Boosters2018Active30 Aug 2026
Starship🇺🇸 United StatesSuper heavy121 m150,00013✓ Both stages2023Dev24 Jul 2026
SLS🇺🇸 United StatesSuper heavy98 m95,0002✗ Expendable2022Active1 Apr 2026
New Glenn🇺🇸 United StatesHeavy98 m45,0004✓ 1st stage2025Active29 May 2026
New Shepard🇺🇸 United StatesSuborbital18 m—25✓ Fully2015Active—
Long March 5B🇨🇳 ChinaHeavy54 m25,0007✗ Expendable2020Active13 Aug 2025
Ariane 6🇪🇺 EuropeMed–Heavy63 m21,6509✗ Expendable2024Active27 Aug 2026
Soyuz🇷🇺 RussiaMedium46 m8,2001,182✗ Expendable1966Active16 Sept 2026
PSLV🇮🇳 IndiaMedium44 m3,80064✗ Expendable1993Active12 Jan 2026
Electron🇳🇿 New ZealandSmall18 m30086✓ Recovery2017Active11 Sept 2026
Vulcan Centaur🇺🇸 United StatesHeavy62 m27,2004✗ Expendable2024Active12 Feb 2026
H3🇯🇵 JapanMed–Heavy63 m16,0009✗ Expendable2024Active10 Aug 2026
Vega-C🇪🇺 EuropeSmall–Med35 m2,3508✗ Expendable2022RTF15 Sept 2026
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Rocket Families

Some rockets are dynasties, not single vehicles. Family hubs cover every variant with live flight records.

🇨🇳
Long March — The Family Hub
China's rocket dynasty, every variant and every launch since 1970: to-scale lineup, reliability record and per-variant flight histories — all live.
667 launches · 21 variants flown in the last 3 years · 97.3% success · live
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All Launch Vehicles

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.

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Falcon 9
The world's most-flown orbital rocket — 687 missions
🔥 Popular
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Falcon Heavy
Triple-core heavy-lift — 63,800 kg to LEO, 13 flights
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Starship
Largest rocket ever flown — 150 t to LEO, fully reusable design
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SLS
NASA's Artemis super heavy-lift — 95,000 kg to LEO
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New Glenn
Blue Origin heavy-lift — 45 t to LEO, Kuiper deployment
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New Shepard
Suborbital tourism — 100+ km, 6 crew, fully reusable
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Long March 5B
China's Tiangong builder — uncontrolled re-entry controversy
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Ariane 6
Europe's next-gen launcher — restoring EU launch autonomy
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Soyuz
Most-launched rocket in history, 1,182 flights since 1966
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PSLV
ISRO's reliable workhorse — Chandrayaan, Mars Orbiter
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Electron
Rocket Lab's small-sat launcher — 3D-printed engines
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Vulcan Centaur
ULA's next-gen — BE-4 engines, replacing Atlas V & Delta IV
🆕 New
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H3
Japan's flagship — LE-9 engines, half the cost of H-IIA
🆕 New
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Vega-C
Europe's lightweight — P120C shared with Ariane 6
🆕 New
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Related Sections

📅
Launch Schedule
Live countdown timers for every upcoming launch
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📋
Satellite Launch Log
Full historical record of every orbital launch
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🏗️
Spaceport Profiles
Cape Canaveral, Baikonur, Kourou and 9 more
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Launch Cost Trends
How reusability changed the economics of space
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Crewed Spacecraft
Dragon, Orion, Starliner — crewed capsule profiles
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🏛️
Space Agencies
NASA, ESA, ISRO, JAXA, CNSA and more
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📌 Cite this data

Orbital Radar — Launch vehicle comparison, live flight data. orbitalradar.com/launch-vehicles/

Free to cite with attribution · flight counts recomputed after every launch · see who cites Orbital Radar.

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Frequently Asked Questions

By total flights, Russia's Soyuz holds the all-time record with 1,182 launches since 1966. For active rockets as of 2026, SpaceX's Falcon 9 leads with 687 flights, performing the vast majority of global orbital launches.
SpaceX's Starship is the most powerful rocket ever flown, producing approximately 74 meganewtons of thrust from 33 Raptor engines, nearly twice the thrust of the Saturn V. NASA's SLS is the second most powerful active rocket at 39,144 kN.
As of 2026, reusable orbital rockets include SpaceX's Falcon 9 (first stage + fairing), Falcon Heavy (side boosters + fairing), Starship (both stages, in development), New Glenn (first stage), and Electron (first stage recovery in development). Most other active rockets remain fully expendable.
Falcon 9 is currently the cheapest operational path to orbit for medium-to-large payloads at approximately $3,000/kg to LEO at list price, or about $2,700/kg with a reused booster. Starship aims to reduce costs below $100/kg with full reusability. For small dedicated payloads, Electron offers launches at $7.5 million total.
As of 2026, there are approximately 14 major active or recently-debuted launch vehicles from 8 countries and blocs. These range from the small Electron (300 kg to orbit) to the super heavy-lift Starship (150,000 kg to orbit). See the launch schedule for upcoming missions from all providers.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches the vast majority of satellites, deploying 20–23 Starlink satellites per mission at a cadence exceeding 100 launches per year. It accounts for over 95% of global commercial launch mass to orbit.
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