Vulcan Centaur vs Falcon 9
Vulcan Centaur replaced Atlas V and Delta IV to keep United Launch Alliance competitive for US national security launches, the market where reliability and unusual orbits matter more than price. It buys its BE-4 engines from Blue Origin and pairs them with the long-lived Centaur upper stage.
Rockets5 min
Vulcan Centaur
Vulcan Centaur is ULA's successor to Atlas V and Delta IV, flown since January 2024 with Blue Origin BE-4 engines and the Centaur V upper stage.
Rockets5 min
Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is SpaceX's partially reusable two-stage rocket and the most-flown American launch vehicle, with 670 Falcon family flights as of June 2026.
Key differences
- Reuse: Vulcan is expendable (engine-recovery concepts remain paper studies); Falcon 9 reuses boosters as standard.
- Specialty: Vulcan's Centaur V upper stage excels at long-coast, direct-to-GEO national security profiles that Falcon 9 typically serves with an expendable core.
- Flight record: Vulcan had flown 4 times by mid-2026, with a booster nozzle anomaly in February 2026 pausing Space Force missions; Falcon 9 flies near-daily.
- Engines: Vulcan burns liquefied natural gas in two BE-4s plus optional solid boosters; Falcon 9 uses nine kerosene Merlins.
Side-by-side specifications
| Vulcan Centaur | Falcon 9 | |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | United Launch Alliance | SpaceX |
| Country | United States | United States |
| First flight | January 8, 2024 | June 4, 2010 |
| Height | 61.6 m | 70 m |
| Diameter | 5.4 m | 3.7 m |
| Mass | Up to 546,700 kg (VC6) | 549,054 kg |
| Payload to LEO | 27,200 kg (VC6) | 22,800 kg (expendable) |
| Stages | 2, plus 0-6 solid boosters | 2 |
| Status | Active (launches paused pending booster investigation) | Active |
| Total launches | 4 (as of June 2026) | 670 (Falcon family, as of June 29, 2026) |
Figures come from each article's infobox; see the articles for sources and context.