Launch vehicles

List of launch rockets of different sizes to keep an eye on in the coming years. Some are still in development or have to prove themselve. I'm curious to see what happens in the next few years.

This is not an all-encompassing list and should never be. It's more of a watch and link list, so I have everything on one page.
As always, Wikipedia offers far more detailed tables.

The next launches

Direct links to corresponding Wikipedia pages with upcoming starts or start attempts. These lists are very well maintained and are usually up to date again a few minutes after a start.

Europe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_6#Planned_launches - Ariane 6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_C#Future_launches - Vega-C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_(rocket)#Past_launches - Spectrum

USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Glenn#Planned_launches - New Glenn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starship_launches#Future_launches - Starshit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches#Future_launches - Falcon

International
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Lab_Neutron#Development_timeline - Neutron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Electron_launches#Upcoming_orbital_launches - Electron

Table

Name	FF	Starts	SSO	LEO	GTO	TLI	Costs
New Glenn 7x2 *	2025	2/2	-	45	13,6	7	68-110
New Glenn 9x4 *	(2026)	-	-	70	-	>20	-
Starship *	(2026)	-	-	>100	-	-	>100
Falcon Heavy	2018	11/11	-	63	26	-	150+
Falcon 9 *	2010	500+	-	17	5,5	-	70+
Ariane 62	2025	4/4	-	12	5	3,5	100
Ariane 64	(2026)	-	-	23	12	8,6	115
Neutron *	(2026)	-	-	13	-	-	50
Vega C	2022	5/6	2,3	-	-	-	37
Spectrum	2025	0/1	0,7	1	-	-	10

Explanations/Abbreviations
Lines marked with * concern information for partially reusable rockets.
FF: First flight or first successful flight with the release of a payload in a stable orbit.
Starts: Successful launches and launch attempts into orbit by the end of 2025, excluding test flights.
SSO: Payload in tons, here sun-synchronous (polar) Earth orbit
LEO: Low Earth Orbit (approx. 400 km)
GTO: Geostationary Transfer Orbit
TLI: Trans Lunar Injection or Moon Transfer Orbit
Costs: per launch in millions of dollars

Notes
Starship: Has already launched (or tried) 11 times, but never into orbit.
Ariane 6: Information for the version with improved boosters, which are to be used for the first time in 2026.
Falcon 9: Specifications for reusable version with Ocean Landing. Price is minimal, without entitlement to a new booster, real prices for customers are sometimes much higher.
Falcon Heavy: Information without reuse. 63 tons for the LEO is a theoretical value that will never be used. The fairing is much too small for this mass, and there are no plans to increase it.
Spectrum: Has had an unsuccessful launch attempt. Whether this was a test flight or not is debatable, I booked it as a regular attempt.

Costs
The development costs are usually not included in the launch price, so the prices are distorted. Ariane 6 is additionally subsidized by the EU per flight so that it is competitive at all.

New Glenn

My greatest hope for a stable heavy-lift rocket actually lies in Jeff Bezos' rocket. I would not have expected that it would deploy its payload without any problems on the first, and land with pinpoint accuracy on the second attempt. Setbacks will come, but so far they have the long thing under control.

Although not yet in commercial use, a larger version is already being worked on. Instead of 45 tons, the next development stage is to transport 70 tons into a LEO, and the first starts of the upgrade have already been announced for 2026.

Unfortunately, Blue Origin is keeping a low profile with news and facts. Take-offs are only announced a few days in advance, and as far as the cost per flight is concerned, I have not yet come across any reliable numbers.

In the first quarter of 2026, the prototype of a Moon lander is to be sent on its way.

Starship

Despite 11 launches in 2024 and 2025, the Starship has still not made it into orbit. In all previous attempts a suborbital trajectory was chosen, in which the ship fell back into the Earth's atmosphere on its own after a wide arc below a summit altitude of less than 200 kilometers - fortunately with all the debris.

As if SpaceX did not trust its own monster, there was not even an attempt to reach a stable orbit. Understandable - if their Starship breaks apart in orbit, it contaminates the LEO for several years.

Elon Musk's predictions and announcements are all far beyond ridiculous. In 2020, he boastfully claimed that his Starship would land unmanned on Mars in 2022 and manned in 2024. On the Wikipedia page, 5 Starships are listed for the year 2026 alone, which are to fly to Mars and carry out their first landing attempts. At least this project, which was trumpeted at the end of 2024, should have been done because of the recent setbacks.

In 2026, there will be some launches and associated explosions again, whether in the air, in space or on land. Let's see if there will be a ready-to-use rocket for 2027.

Neutron

So far, the company Rocketlab has only built very small rockets with Electron, which carry significantly less than a ton of payload into a LEO. Therefore it came as a surprise to me in the fall of 2025 that the much more powerful Neutron will try its luck for the first time as early as spring 2026.

It is to lift 15 tons into a LEO with a reusable first stage. The fairing is planned as part of the first stage - during stage separation only the tip of the rocket is opened, the payload and second stage are pushed out forward, the fairing is closed again and it returns to Earth on board the first stage.

With a planned 50 million dollars per launch, this would be another competitor that makes life difficult for ESA with its Ariane 6. Rocketlab does not skimp on big sounds either, for example, they state that Neutron should be able to bring almost any payload into orbit from 2029 onwards.

ESA 60 ton launcher

At the end of 2024, ESA finally decided to start the development of a partially reusable launch vehicle ... or at least to announce it. It is to carry 60 tons into orbit, powered by liquid methane and oxygen, a novelty for the european rocket industry, which is fixated on hydrogen.

But that will take time. Apart from small-scale test flights, I estimate that the first launch of the complete rocket will not take place before 2032. I would be very surprised to see it commercially before 2034 given the delays in the development of Ariane 6.

Official announcement
https://www.esa.int/.../...European_very_heavy_reusable_rocket

News about it
https://europeanspaceflight.com/esa-once-again-publishes-60t-rocket-study-call/