The short answer
18 orbital rockets have flown this year or have a launch on the manifest, and one of them — Falcon 9 Block 5 — accounts for 64% of their launches. The rest of the field divides into a few vehicles flying monthly, a longer tail flying a few times a year, and a handful of operational rockets that have not flown at all this year — grounded, between customers, or waiting on a pad.
That concentration is the story of 2026 launch: more distinct rockets are operational than ever, and the market is still one company's. Every number here comes from the tracker, not from a press kit, so “operational” on this page means “has actually flown recently”.
The scorecard (live)
| # | Vehicle | Status | 2026 | 90 days | Last flight | Next launch | To LEO | List price | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Falcon 9 Block 5SpaceX · United States | Flying | 103 | 37 | Sep 6, 2026 | Sep 10, 2026 | 22,800 kg | ~$74M | 680 · 99.6% |
| 2 | ElectronRocket Lab · United States | Flying | 15 | 5 | Sep 2, 2026 | Sep 30, 2026 | 300 kg | ~$7.5M |
How to read it
Status is derived, not declared. Flying means the vehicle has launched this year or has a launch on the manifest. Quiet means the registry calls it operational but the tracker holds neither — grounded, between customers, or waiting on a pad. Not yet flown is a vehicle in development, and it moves to flying the moment a first launch appears on the manifest.
2026 and 90 days are lift-off counts; a failure counts as a launch and is marked. The 90-day column is the better cadence measure for a rocket that has just returned to flight or just started flying.
Lifetime is the registry's hand-verified all-time count and success rate, which covers flights before our tracker's history begins. Where a list price is a dash, the provider does not publish one and no reliable figure has been reported; our launch-cost guide explains what is known.
Flying now
- Falcon 9 Block 5 — 103 launches this year, 37 in the last 90 days; next on Sep 10, 2026.
- Electron — 15 launches this year, 5 in the last 90 days; next on Sep 30, 2026.
- Soyuz-2.1b — 9 launches this year, 3 in the last 90 days; next on Sep 16, 2026.
- Long March 6A — 7 launches this year, 2 in the last 90 days.
- Ariane 6 — 4 launches this year, 2 in the last 90 days; next on Oct 7, 2026.
- Atlas V — 4 launches this year, 1 in the last 90 days; next on Dec 31, 2026.
- Long March 2D — 4 launches this year; next on Sep 10, 2026.
- Long March 3B/E — 3 launches this year (1 failed), 2 in the last 90 days.
Operational but quiet
Rockets the registry lists as operational that the tracker has not seen fly this year and holds no next launch for. Each has a reason — a grounding, a retiring line, a market that dried up, or simply a customer gap — and each is one manifest entry away from moving up.
- Ceres-1 · Galactic Energy · last tracked flight Nov 10, 2025 · lifetime 23 at 91.3%
- LVM3 (GSLV Mk III) · ISRO · lifetime 9 at 100%
- Angara A5 · Khrunichev · last tracked flight Jun 19, 2025 · lifetime 5 at 100%
Not yet flown
- Epsilon S · IHI Aerospace / JAXA · 1,500 kg to LEO · first flight on the manifest for NET 2026
- Neutron · Rocket Lab · 13,000 kg to LEO · first flight on the manifest for Dec 31, 2026Rocket Lab's reusable medium-lift rocket, ~13,000 kg to LEO; first flight targeted late 2026.
- Terran R · Relativity Space · 20,000 kg to LEO · no first flight on the manifest yetRelativity Space's reusable medium-lift rocket, in development; no first flight on the manifest.
What to watch
- Starship's cadence. Each flight moves the price floor for everyone else. Starship tracker.
- New Glenn's return to flight from a rebuilt LC-36, and whether it reuses a booster again. Blue Origin vs SpaceX.
- The debutants. Any vehicle in the not-yet-flown list that gains a manifest date. Neutron and Terran R are the ones the market is waiting on.
- Vulcan and Ariane 6 cadence — the two rockets governments bought as alternatives to SpaceX, and whether they reach the rates their customers were promised.
Frequently asked
How many rockets are flying in 2026?
The scorecard on this page counts them live: every vehicle in our registry that has launched this year or has a launch on the manifest. The number in the title is that count at the moment the page loaded.
Which rocket launches the most?
Falcon 9, by a margin no other vehicle approaches — it flies more missions in a typical month than most rockets fly in a year. The live table shows the exact count this year and in the last 90 days.
Is Starship operational?
It is flying operational payloads — Starlink V3 batches since July 2026 — while still working toward routine full reuse. It appears on the scorecard with its flight count and next tracked launch.
Why is New Glenn listed as quiet?
Because it is grounded. After an upper-stage anomaly on its third flight in April 2026 and a static-fire explosion that damaged its only pad in May, Blue Origin is targeting a return to flight before the end of the year. When the tracker holds a next launch, it moves back to the flying list.
What counts as a launch here?
A lift-off — status completed or failed — with a rocket named in the record. Scrubs and stand-downs are not launches. This is the same definition our cadence index and launch-schedule guide use, so the three pages agree.
Where do the prices come from?
From our launch-vehicle registry: published list prices where a provider publishes one, reported figures otherwise, and a dash where neither exists. The cost-per-kilogram column assumes a full payload to low Earth orbit. Our launch-cost guide goes deeper.
Which new rockets are expected to debut?
The "not yet flown" section lists every registry vehicle still in development, and the scorecard flags any with a first flight on the manifest. Rocket Lab's Neutron and Relativity's Terran R are the ones to watch for a late-2026 debut.
Keep going
- Rocket index — every vehicle's full page and flight log.
- What each rocket costs — list prices and cost per kilogram.
- 2026 launch schedule — month by month, live.
- Launch cadence index — this year against last, by provider and country.