Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket. Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access.
| HEIGHT | 70 m |
| DIAMETER | 3.7 m |
| MASS | 549 054 kg |
| PAYLOAD TO LEO | 22 800 kg |
| PAYLOAD TO GTO | 8 300 kg |
| PAYLOAD TO MARS | 4 020 kg |
Falcon Heavy is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 2 300 000 kg of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. As one of the world’s most powerful operational rockets
| HEIGHT | 70 m |
| WIDTH | 12.2 m |
| MASS | 1 420 788 kg |
| PAYLOAD TO LEO | 63 800 kg |
| PAYLOAD TO GTO | 26 700 kg |
| PAYLOAD TO MARS | 16 800 kg |
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed
| HEIGHT | 121 m |
| DIAMETER | 9 m |
| PAYLOAD CAPACITY | 100 – 150 t (fully reusable) |
NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) is a super heavy-lift rocket that provides the foundation for human exploration beyond Earth orbit. With its unprecedented capabilities, SLS is the only rocket that can send NASA’s Orion spacecraft, four astronauts, and large cargo directly to the Moon on a single mission.
| HEIGHT | Block 1: 98 m Block 1B/2: 111 m |
| DIAMETER | 8.4 m |
| MASS | 2 610 000 kg |
| PAYLOAD TO MOON | 27 t |
| PAYLOAD TO DEEP SPACE | 38 t |
| LAUNCH THRUST | 4 300 000 kg |
explanations:
- LEO – Low Earth Orbit – altitude of 2 000 km or less
- GEO – Geostationary Orbit -altitude of 35,786 km – orbit in which the satellite appears stationary to observers on Earth
