Head to head

Space Shuttle 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

Space Shuttle: 27,500 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	Space Shuttle	Vulcan VC6L
Flights flown	135	0
Payload to LEO (kg)	27,500	27,200
Liftoff thrust (kN)	28,200	18,110
Length (m)	56.1	67.4
Diameter (m)	8	5.4
Launch mass (t)	2030	877
Stages	2	2

Space Shuttle

Flight record

98.5% success rate133 of 135 flown · 2 failed

1981peak 1985 · 9 flights2011

Maiden flight 1981-04-12. Retired.

Vulcan VC6L

Flight record

Maiden flight not recorded. Still flying.

Space Shuttle is built by National Aeronautics and Space Administration 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: Space Shuttle · 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.