The hangar
Every machine in the atlas, built to its real dimensions. Here the rockets stand together, with a person at the left for scale. Open any of them to turn it, take it apart and read how it was built.
Loading the machines
Rockets
Saturn VThe three-stage rocket that launched every Apollo crew to the Moon, and Skylab on its last flight.Retired, first flight 1967
Falcon 9SpaceX’s workhorse: a two-stage rocket whose first stage lands and flies again.Flying, first flight 2010
Falcon HeavyThree Falcon 9 first stages strapped together, for the heaviest commercial and NASA payloads.Flying, first flight 2018
StarshipA two-stage system designed to be fully reusable: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage, built from stainless steel.In development, first flight 2023
Space Launch SystemNASA’s Moon rocket: a core stage and four RS-25 engines from the Shuttle era, two solid boosters and Orion on top.Flying, first flight 2022
New GlennBlue Origin’s heavy rocket, with a reusable first stage and seven BE-4 engines.Paused, first flight 2025
Vulcan CentaurUnited Launch Alliance’s successor to Atlas V, powered by the same BE-4 engines as New Glenn.Paused, first flight 2024
Atlas VA long-serving launcher for NASA science missions and national-security satellites, now being retired.Flying, first flight 2002
Crew spacecraft
Space ShuttleA winged, partly reusable orbiter that flew 135 missions, built much of the Space Station and serviced Hubble.Retired, first flight 1981
OrionNASA’s deep-space capsule: a Lockheed Martin crew module on a European service module.Flying, first flight 2014
Crew DragonSpaceX’s capsule that carries NASA crews to the Space Station under a fixed-price contract.Flying, first flight 2019
StarlinerBoeing’s crew capsule, ordered alongside Dragon in 2014 and still not certified to carry crews.In development, first flight 2019
Apollo command moduleThe three-seat capsule that carried every Apollo crew to the Moon and back.Retired, first flight 1966
GeminiThe two-seat capsule that taught NASA to rendezvous, dock and work outside a spacecraft before Apollo.Retired, first flight 1964
Lunar landers
Space stations
Engines
Observatories
Probes
VoyagerTwin probes launched in 1977, now in interstellar space.Operating, first flight 1977
New HorizonsThe probe that flew past Pluto in 2015 and Arrokoth in 2019.Operating, first flight 2006
Europa ClipperNASA’s spacecraft bound for Jupiter’s ocean moon Europa, which it will pass 49 times.Operating, first flight 2024
Parker Solar ProbeThe fastest object ever built, flying through the Sun’s outer atmosphere.Operating, first flight 2018
Rovers
Satellites
GPS IIIThe newest generation of Global Positioning System satellites, built by Lockheed Martin and flown by the Space Force.Operating, first flight 2018
GOES-RNOAA’s geostationary weather satellites, watching the Americas every few minutes.Operating, first flight 2016
LandsatThe longest continuous record of Earth’s land surface from space, begun in 1972.Operating, first flight 1972
Explorer 1The first American satellite, which found the radiation belts around Earth.Completed, first flight 1958
TDRSRelay satellites in geostationary orbit that carry signals between Earth and the Space Station, Hubble and other spacecraft.Operating, first flight 1983
