Head to head

Falcon Heavy vs Vulcan VC6L

Two vehicles in the same payload class. Every figure below comes from the same two sources for both rockets, and a row appears only when both publish the input.

Payload to low Earth orbit

Relative

Falcon Heavy: 63,800 kg

Vulcan VC6L: 27,200 kg

Side by side

8 comparable figures

The highlighted value wins the row. Rows where neither direction is better, like length or stage count, highlight nothing.

Metric	Falcon Heavy	Vulcan VC6L
Flights flown	14	0
Payload to LEO (kg)	63,800	27,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	26,700	15,300
Liftoff thrust (kN)	22,819	18,110
Length (m)	70	67.4
Diameter (m)	12.2	5.4
Launch mass (t)	1400	877
Stages	3	2

Falcon Heavy

Flight record

100% success rate14 of 14 flown

2018peak 2023 · 5 flights2026

Maiden flight 2018-02-06. Still flying.

Vulcan VC6L

Flight record

Maiden flight not recorded. Still flying.

Falcon Heavy is built by SpaceX of the United States (company profile on Space Index).Vulcan VC6L is built by United Launch Alliance of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Falcon Heavy · Vulcan VC6L.

Specifications from Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs, launch records from Space Index. Derived figures are computed here; see sources and method.