Head to head

New Glenn 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

New Glenn: 45,000 kg

Vulcan VC6L: 27,200 kg

Side by side

7 comparable figures

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

Metric	New Glenn	Vulcan VC6L
Flights flown	3	0
Payload to LEO (kg)	45,000	27,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	13,000	15,300
Liftoff thrust (kN)	17,126	18,110
Length (m)	98	67.4
Diameter (m)	7	5.4
Stages	2	2

New Glenn

Flight record

66.7% success rate2 of 3 flown · 1 failed

2025peak 2026 · 4 flights2026

Maiden flight 2025-01-16. Still flying.

Vulcan VC6L

Flight record

Maiden flight not recorded. Still flying.

New Glenn is built by Blue Origin 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: New Glenn · 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.