The short answer
17 orbital rockets have flown this year or have a launch on the manifest, and one of them, Falcon 9 Block 5, accounts for 62% 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 | 116 | 29 | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 27, 2026 | 22,800 kg | ~$74M | 636 · 99.8% |
| 2 | ElectronRocket Lab · United States | Flying | 19 | 7 | Oct 23, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 | 300 kg | ~$9.2M |
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. In development is a vehicle the registry does not yet count as operational: one that has never flown, or one still in test flights, like Starship.
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: 116 launches this year, 29 in the last 90 days; next on Oct 27, 2026.
- Electron: 19 launches this year, 7 in the last 90 days; next on Nov 3, 2026.
- Soyuz-2.1b: 11 launches this year, 3 in the last 90 days; next on Nov 24, 2026.
- Long March 6A: 9 launches this year, 3 in the last 90 days.
- Long March 2D: 5 launches this year, 1 in the last 90 days.
- Ariane 6: 4 launches this year, 1 in the last 90 days; next on Nov 23, 2026.
- Atlas V: 4 launches this year; next on Jan 14, 2027.
- Falcon Heavy: 3 launches this year, 2 in the last 90 days; next on NET Dec 2026.
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 8 at 100%
- Angara A5 · Khrunichev · last tracked flight Jun 19, 2025 · lifetime 5 at 80%
In development
- Starship / Super Heavy · SpaceX · 100,000 kg to LEO · next test flight on the manifest for Dec 31, 2026In flight testing: 14 test flights since April 2023. The first 13 flew suborbital trajectories; on Flight 14, September 28, 2026, Starship reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, SpaceX reported.
- Epsilon S · IHI Aerospace / JAXA · first flight on the manifest for NET 2026
- Terran R · Relativity Space · 23,500 kg to LEO · first flight on the manifest for NET 2026Relativity Space's reusable medium-lift rocket, in development; no first flight on the manifest.
- Neutron · Rocket Lab · 13,000 kg to LEO · first flight on the manifest for NET 2027Rocket Lab's reusable medium-lift rocket, ~13,000 kg to LEO; first flight targeted late 2026.
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. Related: NASA added Terran R to its launch-services contract before the rocket has flown.
- 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?
Not yet. It is still in flight testing: its first 13 flights were suborbital, including Flight 13 in July 2026, which released 20 Starlink V3 satellites that reentered by design. On Flight 14, September 28, 2026, it reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites, SpaceX reported. It is listed under In development until it flies operationally.
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 (Falcon Heavy's is the last SpaceX published, in 2022), a provider's target price for a rocket that has not flown, labelled as such, 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 "In development" 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.