As per NASA, the word “rocket” can mean two different things. The word can describe a type of engine. The word rocket also is used to talk about a vehicle that uses a rocket engine. With time humans have landed on moon and even mars. All our generations have been curious the sky. Curiosity is the mother of invention and this mother gave birth to one of the most paramount inventions, a spacecraft! Like many other engines, a rocket produces thrust by burning fuel. Most rocket engines turn the fuel into hot gas. Pushing the gas out of the back of the engine makes the rocket move forward. A rocket is different from a jet engine. A jet engine requires oxygen from the air to work. A rocket engine carries everything it needs. That is why a rocket engine works in space, where there is no air. With better technology, the efficiency of rockets has improved in exponents, making it easier for the astronauts to stay in them and reach their destination safely and with greater space.
1.Falcon Heavy
Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket existing today. It was designed by SpaceX company of United States. Derived from Falcon 9 vehicle and consists of a strengthened Falcon 9 first stage as the centre core with two additional Falcon 9-like first stage as strap-on boosters. It is 230 feet tall and has 27 massive Merlin 1D engines. With three boosters it can propel 1.7 million pounds of thrust, leveraging the machine to space. Commercial use of the rocket started in February, 2018 and is still in use. It can carry 140,700 pounds of payload in lower Earth orbit. The rocket is propelled by three reusable boosters that can be detached separation. During a demonstration flight of the Falcon Heavy conducted in February 2018, two of the three huge boosters successfully landed at the Kennedy Space Center.
2.Delta IV Heavy
Also developed by United States, Delta IV Heavy is the second most powerful rocket ever made, it can carry a payload of 22,000 to the moon or a full of 17,600 payloads to the planet Mars transfer orbit. It is an expendable heavy-lift launch vehicle The United Launch Alliance launched Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and, the largest type of the Delta IV Family. Vandenberg Air Force Base. In August 2018, the rocket carried the Parker Solar Probe beyond Earth’s orbit on a scientific mission. The rocket is in use from January 2004 until the present time and stands at the height of 236 feet. The max payload that Delta IV Heavy can carry is 63,470 pounds.
3.Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS), taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development. It could a payload of 60,000 pounds in low Earth orbit. Space shuttles bore a plane-like orbiter with an orange-hued external fuel tank and became the face of American space exploration. They had two potent rocket boosters to propel the machine into orbit. The space shuttles Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavor were launched 135 times between 1981- 2011.
4.Energia
Developed by the Soviet Union, it was a rocket designed to launch human-crewed spacecraft. Energia was launched twice in the space – the first launch was a test conducted and carried uncrewed Polyus spacecraft. The rocket successfully launched on the first test; however, a software error failed the Polyus spacecraft to reach orbit. The second launch of Energia successfully carried the uncrewed Buran spacecraft into Earth orbit. The Energia rocket was discontinued after the fall of the Soviet Union. The rocket flew from May 1987 to November 1988 and stands at the height of 190 feet. The maximum payload it carried is 220,000 pounds. The launch vehicle had two functionally different operational variants: Energia-Polyus, the initial test configuration, in which the Polyus system was used as a final stage to put the payload into orbit, and Energia-Buran, in which the Buran-class orbiters were the payload and the source of the orbit insertion impulse.
5.Saturn V
The Saturn V rocket is still the tallest, heaviest, and magnum powerful rocket ever flown in history. Developed by United States, Saturn V retired in 1973. It was successfully launched 13 times from the Kennedy Space Centre. It was a choice of many apollo moon missions, including the Apollo 11 mission in 1916. The Saturn V also carried Skylab into orbit in 1973. Saturn V stood at 363 feet and flew from November 1967 to May 1973. It could carry a payload of up to 310,000 pounds into Earth’s orbit. It consists of three stages, each fueled by liquid propellants. It was designed under the direction of Wernher von Braun at the Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, with Boeing, North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft Company, and IBM as the lead contractors.
6.Space Launch System (SLS)
365 feet tall Space Launch System was developed in the United States. It can carry payload of 209,000 pounds and 290,000 pounds in the Earth’s orbit. The rocket in present is in the development stage to fly for the prestigious Orion program of NASA. The Orion program is scheduled to carry astronauts to the moon and Mars planet. The block 1 configuration will use robust rocket boosters and be the efficient enough to carry 95 metric tons payload into Low Earth Orbit. For crafting the Block 2 configuration, NASA is planning to use advanced boosters, which are also in the development phase.
7.Starship
Starship is still in its development phase. Conceptualized in the United States, it stands 387 feet tall and can carry 222,000 pounds into lower Earth Orbit. It was earlier known as BFR or Big Falcon Rocket. Starship is especially designed to carry people to Mars. It is a crucial spacecraft to SpaceX’s plans to establish a crewed base on Mars. Unlike a traditional launch vehicle second stage, the Starship spacecraft acts as a second stage during launch from Earth and then acts in its long duration role once it has reached orbit, as cargo, a passenger‑carrying spacecraft, or a lander to transport cargo and crew to the surfaces of bodies such as the Moon and Mars. The booster and some variants of the spacecraft are being designed to be capable of recovery and re-flight, while spacecraft that remain in space are designed to be refueled for continued long-term operation. The booster, the spacecraft, and fuel and oxidant storage tanks on the ground are all constructed with stainless steel hulls 9 meters (30 feet) in diameter.
8.Long March 9
Long March 9 is conceptualized in China. It is 305-369 feet tall with payload of 308,000 pounds. China is using this rocket since inception in 1970. The new powerful and heavier Long March 9 is in the early development phase and will not be in the market until 2028. The rocket will be a primary contender for the most powerful rocket’s title in the world. Multiple variants of the rocket have been proposed, with CZ-9 being the largest: this ‘base variant’ has four additional liquid-fuel boosters strapped onto the core stage and it is this variant that has the aforementioned LEO payload capacity of 140,000 kg. Finally, there is the CZ-9B having only the bare 10-meter diameter core stage and a LEO payload capacity of 50,000 kg.
9.New Glenn
New Glenn stands at the height of 20 feet and can carry 140,700 pounds at lower Earth’s orbit. Conceptualized by United States commercial space scenario. The launch vehicle scene is developed by Blue Origin and uses nine robust BE-4 engines. The first stage of the rocket can produce massive 3.85 million pounds of thrust to propel the machine to space. The New Glenn is also a reusable rocket like the New Shepard, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy rockets. The New Glenn is expected to launch by 2021.
10.Ares 1 Rocket/ Liberty Booster
Liberty Booster was launched by NASA in 2009 on the remarkable Ares 1-X test flight. It was launched on a test mission conducted to launch its Orion crew capsule to moon missions. Ares-1 is 326 feet tall. However, after its maiden flight, former US President Barack Obama canceled NASA’s Constellation program in 2010, and a new program replaced it.
