Expendable Rockets

The world's first intercontinental ballistic missile, which in 1957 launched Sputnik 1 and founded the most prolific rocket lineage in history.

NASA's first heavy-lift rocket and the first designed for spaceflight rather than as a missile; it flight-tested Apollo hardware and clustered eight engines in its first stage.

The human-rated Titan II Gemini Launch Vehicle, adapted from an ICBM to carry the two-person Gemini spacecraft into orbit.

A Russian heavy-lift rocket using storable hypergolic propellants, used to launch interplanetary probes, large satellites, and space-station modules.

A NASA heavy-lift launch vehicle used for early Apollo Earth-orbit tests, the Skylab crews, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project.

A long-serving family of Russian expendable rockets that has carried crews and cargo to orbit for over five decades.

A NASA super heavy-lift launch vehicle that carried every crewed Apollo mission to the Moon and launched the Skylab station.

The Soviet super heavy-lift Moon rocket; all four launch attempts (1969–1972) failed and the program was cancelled. The flown vehicle used Kuznetsov NK-15 engines; the improved NK-33 (for the never-flown N1F) flew decades later on other rockets.

Europe's first launcher, which established independent access to space and orbited the Giotto probe to Halley's Comet.

An Ariane variant adding two solid strap-on boosters and dual-payload capability for commercial satellites.

A Ukrainian-designed medium-lift kerosene/LOX rocket whose first stage traces to the Energia boosters, flown from Baikonur and the Sea Launch ocean platform.

An uprated single-payload development of Ariane 1 with a more powerful third stage.

The Soviet super heavy-lift rocket that launched the uncrewed Buran shuttle, flying only twice before the program ended.

A highly successful and flexible Ariane variant with multiple booster configurations that dominated the commercial launch market in the 1990s.

A highly reliable medium-lift workhorse that launched GPS satellites and many NASA planetary missions, including the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the Kepler telescope.

The largest and last of the Titan family — a heavy-lift launcher for large U.S. national-security satellites and the Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn.

An air-launched, three-stage solid-fueled small rocket dropped from a carrier aircraft to place small satellites into low Earth orbit.

ISRO's reliable workhorse rocket, which launched Chandrayaan-1 and the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan).

Japan's first entirely domestically developed launch vehicle, using cryogenic LH2/LOX stages.

A European heavy-lift rocket operated by Arianespace, which launched the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021 before retiring in 2023.

A Chinese launch vehicle widely used for geostationary satellites and several Chang'e lunar missions.

China's only human-rated launch vehicle, which carries the Shenzhou spacecraft with crews to the Tiangong space station.

A family of solid-fueled small launchers built from surplus Minuteman and Peacekeeper missile motors for U.S. government payloads.

A Japanese launch vehicle that flew JAXA science missions including Hayabusa2 and the Akatsuki Venus orbiter.

ISRO's launcher for heavier payloads to geostationary transfer orbit, used for Chandrayaan-2, with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage.

An expendable launch vehicle by United Launch Alliance that has flown many NASA science and planetary missions.

A heavy-lift expendable rocket by United Launch Alliance, retired in 2024, used for national-security and high-energy science launches such as Parker Solar Probe.

SpaceX's first rocket and the first privately developed liquid-fueled launcher to reach orbit, in 2008 — the proving ground for the Merlin engine.

Europe's small-lift launcher with three solid stages and a liquid upper stage, for small scientific and Earth-observation satellites.

A medium-lift rocket operated by Northrop Grumman that launched Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS; the flown Antares 230+ retired in 2023 after its Russian/Ukrainian first-stage supply was cut, pending the U.S.-built Antares 330.

A Japanese solid-fueled small-lift rocket derived from the H-IIA's booster technology, launched from the Uchinoura Space Center for small scientific satellites.

Russia's modular heavy-lift launcher built from common URM core boosters and burning kerosene/LOX, intended to replace the Proton.

China's heavy-lift rocket, used to launch the Tianwen-1 Mars mission, Chang'e lunar sample-return missions, and Tiangong station modules.

A modern kerosene/LOX medium-lift Long March that launches the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft to the Tiangong station.

ISRO's most powerful operational rocket, which launched Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 and is being human-rated for the Gaganyaan program.

An air-launched, two-stage small rocket released from a modified Boeing 747; it reached orbit before Virgin Orbit ceased operations in 2023.

A small-to-medium-lift two-stage rocket operated by Firefly Aerospace for dedicated small-satellite launches.

NASA's super heavy-lift rocket for the Artemis program, which launched the uncrewed Artemis I around the Moon in 2022.

An upgraded, more capable Vega with larger solid motors and a common booster shared with Ariane 6.

ISRO's small-satellite launch vehicle, designed for low-cost, on-demand launches of small payloads to low Earth orbit.

JAXA's new-generation launch vehicle with the expander-bleed LE-9 engine, designed for lower cost and higher flexibility than the H-IIA.

United Launch Alliance's successor to the Atlas V and Delta IV families, using BE-4 engines and a Centaur upper stage.

Europe's successor to Ariane 5, designed for greater flexibility and lower cost, with a restartable Vinci upper stage.

A small-lift two-stage rocket developed by Germany's Isar Aerospace for the European small-satellite market.

A super heavy-lift launch vehicle in development for China's planned crewed lunar and deep-space missions.