Rocket Atlas

SpaceX

The tallest and most powerful rocket ever built — fully reusable and designed for Mars.

NASA / Orbital ATK

NASA's crewed launcher design for Constellation — cancelled before operational flights.

NASA / Boeing / North American

The legendary American super heavy-lift rocket that carried astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo program.

OKB-1 (Soviet Union)

The Soviet Moon rocket — never flew successfully despite immense thrust.

NASA / Boeing

NASA's Space Launch System — the most powerful rocket currently flying, designed to send Artemis crews back to the Moon.

Blue Origin

Blue Origin's heavy-lift, partially reusable orbital rocket — finally flying.

ULA

ULA's triple-core heavy-lift rocket, primarily used for classified national security payloads.

SpaceX

The world's most-flown orbital rocket — partially reusable and the workhorse of modern spaceflight.

SpaceX

Three Falcon 9 cores strapped together — the most powerful operational rocket until Starship.

JAXA / Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Japan's next-generation flagship rocket, built for affordability and high cadence.

ArianeGroup / ESA

Europe's new-generation heavy-lift launcher, designed to restore Europe's autonomous access to space.

Lockheed Martin / USAF

The United States' largest expendable military rocket, carrying reconnaissance satellites and the Cassini spacecraft.

CASC

China's only human-rated rocket, used for every Shenzhou crewed mission.

United Launch Alliance

ULA's next-generation heavy lifter, replacing both Atlas V and Delta IV.

Yuzhnoye / Sea Launch

Ukrainian rocket launched from a converted oil platform on the equator — a unique sea-launch operation.

NPO Energia (Soviet Union)

The Soviet super heavy-lift rocket — launched Buran on its only crewless orbital flight.

United Launch Alliance

ULA's reliable workhorse — flying since 2002 with a near-perfect record.

Khrunichev / Roscosmos

Russia's workhorse heavy-lift rocket, launching satellites and interplanetary probes for over two decades.

Yuzhnoye / Yuzhmash

A powerful Ukrainian-built rocket designed as a Sea Launch platform vehicle — used the revolutionary RD-171 engine.

CASC

China's heavy-lift workhorse — launched Tianwen-1 to Mars and the Tiangong space station modules.

NASA / Rockwell

America's iconic reusable spaceplane — a partial reusability concept that defined a generation.

Roscosmos

Russia's planned partially-reusable, methane-fueled successor to Soyuz-2, designed for low-cost high-cadence launches.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries / JAXA

Japan's trusted workhorse — launched 47 missions with zero failures.

ArianeGroup / ESA

Europe's heavy-lift cornerstone for nearly three decades — launched the James Webb Space Telescope.

KARI

South Korea's first wholly indigenous orbital launch vehicle.

Roscosmos / Progress

The modernized descendant of the R-7 — the rocket family with more flights than any other.

CASC / SAST

China's polar orbit workhorse — consistently launching Earth observation and weather satellites since 1999.

ISRO

India's reliable medium-lift launcher — famous for launching 104 satellites in a single mission.

ISRO

India's heaviest operational launcher — carried Chandrayaan-3 to a soft lunar landing.

Khrunichev / Roscosmos

Russia's modern small-lift vehicle — modular design compatible with larger Angara variants.

OKB-1 / Sergei Korolev (Soviet Union)

Soviet crewed spacecraft launcher — carried Yuri Gagarin and five others to orbit.

McDonnell Douglas / Boeing

The workhorse of the 1990s-2010s — flew GPS satellites and Mars rovers.

Yuzhnoye / Yuzhmash

Soviet-era workhorse built in Ukraine — launched Cosmos military satellites and science missions with exceptional reliability.

Lockheed / US Air Force

Unmanned Agena target vehicle for Gemini rendezvous missions.

NASA / von Braun / Marshall Space Flight Center

The stepping stone to the Moon — proved Saturn technology before Saturn V.

General Dynamics

An early Atlas-derived launcher used in ill-fated attempts to send Pioneer probes toward the Moon — all three flights failed.

ISC Kosmotras

A converted Soviet-era SS-18 Satan ICBM repurposed as a commercial space launch vehicle.

Martin Marietta

America's most reliable ICBM-derived launcher — flew Gemini missions and 111 flights total.

PO Polyot

One of the most-flown rockets in history — 444 launches over 43 years, primarily deploying Soviet and Russian military Cosmos satellites.

NADA / North Korea

North Korea's reconnaissance satellite launch vehicle, successfully deploying the Malligyong-1 spy satellite in 2023.

NADA / North Korea

North Korea's Unha-3 rocket placed two satellites into orbit amid international controversy.

General Dynamics

An Atlas-derived workhorse that launched the first probes to Venus and Mars, plus the Ranger and Lunar Orbiter Moon missions.

Avio / ESA / Arianespace

Europe's small-lift rocket, designed to launch Earth observation and scientific satellites into polar orbits.

Orbital Sciences

A ground-launched solid rocket by Orbital Sciences — essentially a Pegasus on a pedestal, needing no launch pad.

Lockheed Martin / General Dynamics

Small-lift Centaur-based launcher — both flights failed.

Isar Aerospace

Germany's first privately funded orbital rocket — Europe's entry into the new space race.

ISAS / Nissan Motors

Japan's science rocket that launched the Suisei and Sakigake probes to intercept Halley's Comet in 1986.

ISA / Iran

Iran's heaviest orbital launch vehicle, with a turbulent development history and modest success rate.

JAXA / Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Japan's small solid-rocket launcher — successor to M-V.

IAI / IMOD

Israel's orbital launch vehicle — uniquely launched westward over the Mediterranean due to political constraints.

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed's heavier satellite launcher — all three flights failed to reach orbit.

IRGC Aerospace / Iran

Iran's first solid-propellant orbital rocket, developed and operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

NADA / North Korea

North Korea's first claimed orbital launch vehicle — North Korea claims it achieved orbit; independent analysts disagree.

Lockheed

A specialized Atlas E/F variant with an Altair-3A upper stage that launched three Stacksat spacecraft in 1990.

Army Ballistic Missile Agency / Chrysler

Mercury-Redstone: IRBM converted to boost Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom.

Orbital Sciences / Northrop Grumman

A US military rocket built from repurposed Peacekeeper ICBM stages — turning nuclear missiles into satellite launchers.

Douglas Aircraft / Lockheed

Cold War workhorse that launched America's first spy satellites and dozens of early scientific missions.

Glenn L. Martin Co. / US Navy

The US Navy's early orbital rocket — infamous for its televised explosion in December 1957.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Army Ballistic Missile Agency

America's first satellite launcher — clustered design that worked on the 5th attempt.

Lockheed Martin

A small-lift vehicle for microsat constellations — limited operational success.

ISAS / University of Tokyo / Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

Japanese all-solid vehicle — achieved perfect 30/30 success rate.

Skyroot Aerospace

India's first privately developed orbital launch vehicle — a four-stage solid-fuel rocket built by Skyroot Aerospace.

Société pour l'Étude et la Réalisation d'Engins Balistiques (SEREB)

France's first indigenous satellite launcher — became Europe's symbol of space independence.

Rocket Lab

A small-lift carbon-composite rocket pioneering electric-pump-fed engines.

Blue Origin

Blue Origin's fully reusable suborbital rocket, designed for space tourism and scientific payloads.

Orbital Sciences / Northrop Grumman

The world's first privately developed orbital rocket — launched from beneath a carrier aircraft at 40,000 ft.

Royal Aircraft Establishment

The United Kingdom's only orbital launch vehicle — flew just once successfully before the programme was cancelled.

Institute of Space and Astronautical Science / University of Tokyo

Japan's first indigenous satellite launcher — achieved orbit on 5th attempt.