What are the biggest rockets?

Rockets are usually ranked by three figures: height, liftoff mass and liftoff thrust. SpaceX's Starship, in its current configuration, stands about 123 m (403 ft) tall, weighs close to 5,000 t fully fuelled and lifts off on 33 Raptor engines producing roughly 74 MN of thrust, more than double the Saturn V. NASA's Saturn V, which flew 13 times between 1967 and 1973, was 110.6 m (363 ft) tall, weighed about 2,970 t and generated 34.5 MN with its five F-1 engines. By payload it remains the reference: about 140 t to low Earth orbit.

The Soviet N1, built for the Moon race, was 105 m tall and produced roughly 45 MN with 30 engines, but all four launches between 1969 and 1972 failed. NASA's Space Launch System, which launched Artemis I in November 2022, is 98 m (322 ft) tall in Block 1 form and produces 39 MN from four RS-25 engines and two solid boosters, sending about 95 t to low Earth orbit. Blue Origin's New Glenn, first flown in January 2025, is also 98 m tall, though its 17 MN of thrust places it well behind. The Soviet Energia of 1987 and the Space Shuttle stack belong in the same class by thrust.

The largest rocket in regular commercial use is SpaceX's Falcon Heavy: 70 m tall, 22.8 MN of thrust and up to 63.8 t to low Earth orbit in fully expendable mode. Starship is bigger in every dimension, but as of May 2026 it is still in a test campaign rather than routine service, so 'biggest flying' and 'biggest operational' remain two different answers.