NASAfacts

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Launch Services Program 

Established in 1998, NASA’s Launch Services 

Program (LSP), based at the agency’s Kennedy Space 

Center in Florida, ensures a reliable capability for 

launching the agency’s science and robotic missions 

by procuring commercial launch vehicles for NASA 

and NASA-sponsored payloads. LSP functions as 

a broker, matching spacecraft with the best-suited 

rockets, managing the launch process, and providing 

support from pre-mission planning to post launch. 

The program’s main objectives include delivering 

safe, cost-effective, and on-time launch services, 

including mission analysis, spacecraft integration, 

and payload processing to ensure mission success.

LSP works with a variety of customers, ranging 

from NASA centers and educational institutions 

to international partners such as ESA (European 

Space Agency), Indian Space Research Organization 

(ISRO), and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration 

Agency). Other government agencies, including 

the United States Space Force (USSF), National 

Reconnaissance Organization (NRO), and National 

Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

also collaborate with LSP.

The program supports the mission needs of its 

customers from conception until well after launch, 

offering customized services and contracts based 

on the complexity, duration, and risk tolerance of the 

mission. These comprehensive end-to-end services 

range from advanced planning, business aspects, 

technical services, launch site operations, launch 

operations, to post-launch activities. They include 

spacecraft design, procurement of commercial 

launch services, certification of rockets, standalone 

testing of spacecraft, countdown participation, and 

post-launch data analysis.

Launch vehicles are complex, high-performance 

rockets that use two or more stages to transport 

a spacecraft to space. These rockets must be 

compatible with the spacecraft they launch and 

must withstand harsh environments, including 

vibration, contamination, electromagnetism, extreme 

temperatures, and structural loads to complete their 

missions. LSP helps implement NASA’s policy of a 

mixed-fleet launch strategy, which uses both existing 

and emerging domestic launch capabilities to ensure 

access to space. To achieve this, LSP works with 

many commercial launch providers to provide a 

range of rockets capable of reaching space. 

The spacecraft, or payloads, serve various purposes in 

space, including communication, Earth observation, 

meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration, and 

transportation of humans and cargo. Each rocket 

is selected and tailored to help its spacecraft reach 

the correct destination in space, whether that is a 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft soars upward after liftoff from the launch pad at Launch Complex 

39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1 a.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. Photo Credit: NASA/Cory S. Huston
Launch Services Program 2 NASA Facts

particular orbit around Earth, landing on the surface of another 

planet such as Mars, or heading billions of miles away into the 

Kuiper Belt.

Additionally, LSP serves as a key consultant for NASA’s Artemis 

missions, supporting what will be humanity’s first space 

station in lunar orbit - Gateway - by advising on HALO (habitation 

and logistics outpost), the Power and Propulsion Element 

(PPE), and the logistics element, as well as providing mission 

management to deliver the Canadian Deep Space Exploration 

Robotic System to the lunar space station. LSP supports the 

human landing system(s) in an advisory role as well. It also 

provides advisory expertise for the agency’s Commercial Crew 

Program and Commercial Resupply Services program missions 

in support of the International Space Station.

Rocket Providers 

and Capabilities

All expendable rockets use the same basic technology to 

get into space – two or more rocket-powered stages, which 

fall away when their engine burns are completed. In recent 

years, some commercial providers have incorporated or 

designed methods to reuse parts of their rocket. Whatever a 

rocket carries above the final discarded stage is considered 

the payload. LSP works with a large number of commercial 

launch providers to have a mixed fleet of both emerging and 

established companies providing several rockets.

Blue Origin – New Glenn

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket is a single configuration heavylift rocket capable of carrying people and payloads. New 

Glenn’s fully reusable first stage is designed for a minimum of 

25 flights. The seven-meter fairing has two times the payload 

volume of any existing rocket. The Blue Engine 4 (BE-4) will 

enable New Glenn to launch payloads weighing 45 metric tons 

to low Earth orbit and 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer 

orbit.

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems – Antares

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket is a two-stage rocket 

with an optional third stage that provides low Earth orbit 

launch capability for payloads weighing up to 17,637 pounds 

(8,000 kilograms). The rocket is primarily used to support 

the company’s Commercial Resupply Services contract with 

NASA.

Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems - Pegasus XL

The three-stage Pegasus rocket is used to deploy small 

satellites weighing up to 1,000 pounds (453.59 kilograms) 

into low Earth orbit. Pegasus is carried aloft by the Stargazer 

L-1011 aircraft to approximately 40,000 feet over open ocean, 

where it is released and free-falls five seconds before igniting 

its first stage rocket motor. With its unique delta-shaped wing, 

Pegasus typically delivers satellites into orbit in a little over 10 

minutes.

United Launch Alliance – Atlas V

Atlas V uses a standard common core booster, up to five 

solid rocket boosters, a Centaur upper stage in a single- or 

dual-engine configuration, and one of several sizes of payload 

fairings. The Atlas V can carry a payload weighing up to 41,570 

pounds (18,850 kilograms) to low Earth orbit.

United Launch Alliance – Vulcan Centaur

United Launch Alliance’s newest launch vehicle, the Vulcan 

Centaur rocket has a fairing of 5.4 meters in diameter (available 

in two different lengths) and can carry a payload weighing up to 

60,000 pounds (27,200 kilograms) to Low Earth orbit, and up 

to 15,400 pounds (7,000 kilograms) into geosynchronous Earth 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket, carrying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T), lifts 

off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on 

March 1, 2022. Photo Credit: NASA/Kevin O’Connell & Kevin Davis

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket with the Psyche spacecraft onboard rolled to the launch pad 

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida 

as part of preparations of the mission to a metal-rich asteroid. Photo Credit: NASA/Aubrey 

Gemignani
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

John F. Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899

www.nasa.gov

FS-2023-12-1180-KSC

orbit. Up to six solid rocket boosters can be added to increase 

its performance.

SpaceX – Falcon 9

Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and 

manufactured by SpaceX for the transport of people and 

payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the world’s 

first orbital class reusable rocket. Reusability allows SpaceX 

to reuse the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn 

drives down the cost of space access.

SpaceX – Falcon Heavy

Falcon Heavy is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nineengine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more 

than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately 

18,747 aircraft. As one of the world’s most powerful operational 

rockets, Falcon Heavy can lift nearly 141,000 pounds (64 metric 

tons) to orbit.

Launch Sites

LSP operates from several launch sites around the world, using 

the different capabilities of each site to meet all the agency’s 

missions. The decision on the proper launch site location is 

based on the type of science, and what orbital destination the 

satellite needs to reach to gather the science.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s 

Kennedy Space Center

Located along Florida’s central Atlantic coast between 

Jacksonville and Miami, our nation’s premiere spaceport is 

ideal for launching spacecraft requiring equatorial orbits. This 

is due to its closer proximity to the equator. This launch site is 

also ideal for missions requiring a west-east orbit.

Vandenberg Space Force Base

Located along California’s central coast between Los Angeles 

and San Francisco, Vandenberg is the preferred launch site for 

spacecraft requiring a north-south orbit and is also best for 

missions with a polar orbit destination.

Wallops Island Flight Facility

Located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Wallops Island Flight 

Facility is NASA’s principal facility for suborbital research 

programs.

Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll

Located between Hawaii and Australia, Kwajalein Atoll is used 

for missions requiring equatorial orbits and low inclinations.

Kodiak Island, Alaska

Due to its wide launch azimuth and unobstructed downrange 

flight path, Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (formerly 

Kodiak Launch Complex) is one of the best locations in the 

world for polar launch operations.

Additional launch sites

Additional launch sites specific to LSP’s Venture-Class 

Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services 

contract include:

• Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand

• Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California

• Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas

LSP – Earth’s Bridge to Space – has launched more 

than 100 primary missions.

Follow the Launch Services Program on social media at:

https://www.facebook.com/NASALSP/

https://twitter.com/nasa_lsp

Follow LSP on the web at:

https://www.nasa.gov/kennedy/launch-services-program/

For more information about LSP, consult these fact sheets:

Hanger AE Fact Sheet

Rocket Risk Fact Sheet

LSP’s Earth’s Bridge to Space Info Book

A long exposure photo of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launching the Lucy spacecraft from Space Launch Complex 41, Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021, at Cape Canaveral Space 

Force Station in Florida. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to study Jupiter’s Trojan Asteroids. 

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls