World’s Biggest Rockets

Take an in-depth look at some of the tallest rockets in history. During the history of human spaceflight, NASA and other space agencies have developed some serious rockets: behemoths of space that aimed to send astronauts to the moon and elsewhere in deep space.

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NASA’s Powerful Saturn V Rocket

The supreme champion of giant rockets is NASA’s massive Saturn V, a three-stage booster used to launch American Apollo astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

And like the NASA shuttles and Ares I-X, the towering Saturn V launched from the famous Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It rose 363 feet (110 meters) high and remained the most powerful rocket ever constructed, even though the last one flew in 1973.

The Saturn V rocket could launch payloads of up to 45 tons to the moon or 120 tons into orbit. It measured 6.5 million pounds (3 million kilograms), completely fueled at liftoff. The Ares I-X rocket weighs 1.8 million pounds (816,466 kilograms), somewhat less than the full Ares I.

The last Saturn V was a modified version that launched NASA’s huge Skylab space station. Somewhat smaller versions of the Saturn V rocket were used to launch astronauts to Skylab. The last one, a 224-foot (68-meter) Saturn 1B, was launched in 1975 to fly American astronauts to meet up with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft during the Apollo-Soyuz joint mission.

The Beast That Will Take Us to Mars: Starship

Remember those monster trucks that made your childhood toys look tiny? That’s how SpaceX’s Starship makes other rockets feel. This absolute unit isn’t just big—it’s reshaping our entire approach to space travel.

Let’s put this beast into perspective. Starship packs twice the punch of the legendary Saturn V that took our ancestors to the Moon, producing a mind-bending amount of thrust. And here’s the kicker: within a year, it’ll be even more powerful, ramping up to 10,000 metric tons of thrust. That’s like having 100 jumbo jets firing at full power simultaneously.

But raw power isn’t the whole story. The real game-changer is that Starship is designed to be the first fully reusable super-heavy rocket. Think of it as the difference between throwing away your car after each trip versus being able to refuel and go again. Its fuel choice is equally clever—a mix of liquid oxygen (80%) and liquid methane (20%)—keeping operational costs surprisingly low.

Here’s where it gets really interesting: this combination of reusability and smart engineering could slash the cost of reaching orbit to just 1% of what the Saturn V required. That’s not just an improvement—it’s a revolution that transforms space travel from a government-scale endeavor into something more accessible.

The implications? We’re no longer just talking about sending a few astronauts to Mars. Starship could be the workhorse that helps us establish the first human city on another planet. As Musk puts it, this is the difference between humanity remaining earthbound and becoming a genuine multiplanet species. The science fiction dreams of yesterday are rapidly becoming tomorrow’s reality.

SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket

The mighty SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket may not be the tallest rocket in use today, but at 230 feet (70 meters), it’s somewhat close.

And while it’s not the most towering of the bunch, the SpaceX Falcon Heavy is the most powerful booster of the 21st century. The rocket can launch payloads of up to 141,000 lbs. (64 metric tons) using two side boosters based on the company’s Falcon 9 engine and a central core.

That gives the Falcon Heavy rocket 27 engines in its first stage, which will produce more than 5 million pounds-force (22,819 kilonewtons) of thrust at the launch. 

It is the equivalent force of nearly 18 Boeing 747 jumbo jets at full power.

One bonus to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is that it’s designed to be somewhat reusable. SpaceX built the first-stage boosters to be able to return to Earth for land or drone ship landings.

As of November 2024, the total number of Falcon Heavy launches is 7. Think of it as three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together—except it’s way cooler than that makes it sound.

Soviet Union’s Mighty N-1 Rocket

The former Soviet Union’s N-1 rocket is an enormous booster intended to launch Soviet cosmonauts to the moon, our only satellite, during the Space Race with the United States.

The colossal Russian rocket stood approximately 345 feet (104 meters) tall, had five separate stages, and resembled a huge, tapering cone about 55 feet (17 meters) wide at the base. During the launch, it weighed around 6.1 million pounds (2.7 million kg) and was meant to blast payloads of up to 95 tons into space and send cosmonauts to the moon.

However, the N-1 rocket never successfully entered space despite four tried launches. It exploded during all four efforts between 1969 and 1972.

The past Soviet Union did have other massive rockets in its space launch inventory. Like the enormous D-1E and D-1 modifications of the Proton used for the 1968 lunar probe missions and the 1971 Salyut 1 space station launch. Neither came near to the N-1’s towering size.

Today, Russia still utilizes Proton rockets and smaller Soyuz boosters to take satellites into Earth orbit, though cosmonauts proceed to ride only Soyuz rockets into orbit. The country is also developing a new class of Angara rockets.

Delta IV Heavy Rocket

The highest 21st-century rocket in regular service in the United States currently is the Delta IV Heavy. It is a heavy-lift variant of the United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 booster.

The 235-foot (72-meter) Delta 4 Heavy rocket made its takeoff debut in 2004 but underwent a sensor glitch that prevented it from reaching its planned Earth orbit. The problem was fixed. The giant rocket launched a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The Delta 4 Heavy consists of three boosters, each called a Common Booster Core. They are arranged in a line to give the rocket a three-column look. According to Spaceflight Now, at least two more Delta 4 Heavy missions are expected for future classified satellite launches.

The Delta 4 Heavy rocket is capable of launching payloads of up to 24 tons into orbit and 11 tons toward the geosynchronous Earth orbits used by communications satellites.

The Delta 4 Heavy rocket is also touted to be capable of launching 11-ton payloads on trans-lunar injection orbit routes toward our moon and 8.8-ton payloads on Mars-bound trajectories.

NASA Space Launch System

NASA’s latest giant rocket is the SLS or Space Launch System. It is intended to launch NASA’s Orion space capsule. The vehicle was originally designed as part of NASA’s now-canceled Constellation program for space exploration.

Agency officials say the Space Launch System will be a Saturn V-class rocket that can also launch equipment, cargo, and science operations to Earth’s orbit and targets beyond. NASA says it could also work as a backup booster for low-Earth orbit trips.

According to NASA, the Space Launch System will have an initial lift capability of 70 metric tons and reach nearly 322 feet (98 meters) tall, making it a bit shorter than the Saturn V rocket. It can be expandable to 130 metric tons. The first developmental mission occurred in November 2022.

NASA’s Ares 1 Rocket

Ares I was the astronaut launch vehicle that NASA was developing as part of the Constellation program. And the name Ares refers to the Greek deity Ares, who is identified with the Roman god Mars. Ares I was originally known as the CLV or “Crew Launch Vehicle.”

In 2009, NASA launched the most towering rocket to launch in the 21st century so far. The mighty Ares 1 rocket on the Ares 1-X test flight. The colossal rocket launched in October 2009 on a mission to test the agency’s rocket design to launch its Orion crew capsule on future moon missions for the now-scrapped Constellation program. 

The huge Ares 1 rocket stood 327 feet (100 meters) high. It is 14 stories taller than the space shuttle. However, the 2009 flight was the only trip for the Ares 1 design. Former President Barack Obama cut NASA’s moon-oriented Constellation program in 2010 and replaced it with a different plan directed at deep space missions to Mars and asteroids.

Furthermore, the first stage of the huge Ares 1 rocket was developed by shuttle solid rocket booster builder ATK, which has since repurposed the design for its latest commercial rocket: the Liberty booster.

NASA’s Space Shuttle Program

NASA’s space shuttle fleet may look inferior to the giant rockets of the past. However, its 30-year flight history makes it a good measuring stick for rocket booster match-ups. Of course, it depends on how you measure the shuttles.

Each NASA space shuttle is about 122 feet (37 meters) long from nose to stern and stands 56 feet (17 meters) tall. They have a total wingspan of about 78 feet (23 meters).

However, in the launch position, the orbiter sat on the side of the 15-story external fuel tank, and two solid rocket boosters flanked it. The space shuttle on the launch pad measured 184 feet (56 meters) tall from the tip of the external tank to the aft skirts of its twin solid huge rocket boosters.

NASA Launched 135 Shuttle Missions

The shuttle had a 60-foot (18-meter) long payload bay that was 15 feet (4.5 meters) wide. Orbiters could bring large payloads into Earth’s orbit, making the space shuttle the only vehicle capable of launching large segments of the International Space Station, which involved the bulk of the space shuttle fleet’s flight manifest for more than a decade.

The agency launched 135 space shuttle missions since the fleet’s debut flight made by the historic Columbia in April 1981. There were two huge failures: The space shuttle Challenger and seven NASA astronauts were lost just after takeoff in January 1986 due to an O-ring seal leakage in a solid rocket booster that led to an explosion. The space shuttle Columbia broke apart during its re-entry in February 2003 due to wing heat shield damage. Seven NASA astronauts were killed.

And after each accident, the agency stood down from space shuttle flights to make safety improvements. NASA retired its successful space shuttle fleet in 2011 with the final flight of Atlantis on the STS-135 mission.

Thanks for reading this article. If you want to learn more about Saturn V, then head over to this interesting article: Why Was The Saturn V Rocket Painted Black And White?