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

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.

NASA's partially reusable crewed launch system — a winged orbiter with an external tank and two solid rocket boosters — that flew 135 missions building the ISS and servicing Hubble.

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.

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

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.

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