Launch vehicle
The rocket that carries a payload from the ground to orbit, as distinct from the spacecraft it is carrying.
The distinction between the rocket and its cargo is the one that organises the whole industry. A launch vehicle is a transport service sold by the kilogram, and its economics - price, cadence, reliability, how much it can lift to which orbit - set the boundaries of what missions are even proposable. When a new vehicle arrives or an existing one is grounded, the effect ripples through every satellite programme waiting for a ride, which is why launch vehicle news moves the sector more than most satellite news does.
The 350 missions in our tracker are dominated by a small number of vehicles and providers: SpaceX accounts for 148, followed by China's CASC and Rocket Lab (30), with United Launch Alliance at 26 and a long tail of newer European and Asian entrants flying single-digit numbers.
- 2026-09-07SpaceX prepares Starship Flight 14 with Ship 41, Booster 21 and Starlink payloads
- 2026-09-07Chinese Deep Space Exploration Lab Announces Cislunar CubeSat Constellation of 30 12U CubeSats
- 2026-09-02Sandia Lab study uses infrasound to pinpoint Blue Origin New Glenn explosion up to 1,700 km away
- 2026-09-02Teledyne Passes 1,000 Orbital Imaging Sensors; Lunar Station Taps NASA Data
- 2026-09-01Isar Aerospace to Launch Astroscale’s ADRAS-J2 on Spectrum to Remove an 11‑metre Upper Stage
- 2026-08-31NASA's FALCON Flies GPS-Free on Starling as Firefly Warns of Launch Shortage
The spacecraft or payload, which is what the vehicle delivers and what usually carries the mission name. A press release about a mission failure often blurs the two, and the distinction decides who is accountable.