Pick the right launch vehicle with S to F ratings and notes for every light, medium, heavy and superheavy rocket in Space Manager.
Space Manager: Rocket Tier List
The cheapest rocket that can lift a contract’s dry payload is not always the right pick. When a rocket has spare payload capacity, the game fills the payload’s propellant for free. A bigger rocket gives your satellite more propellant, so it can shift its orbit further if you want to capture data.
Tip: Check the wet payload weight on the launch screen. If it is within a couple of tons of the rocket’s max payload, consider moving up a size.
Light Rockets
| Vehicle | Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Astra 3 | C | The cheapest and lightest rocket in the game. It suits very small loads going to very low Earth orbit, a job that rarely comes up. |
| Electron | A | A big step up from the Astra 3 in both payload and max orbit, and still very cheap. Your main rocket for light payloads to low Earth orbit (LEO). |
| Zephyr | D | Carries a little more than the Electron, but its orbit limit is very low. You will rarely use it, though it saves money when it fits the job. |
| Alpha | D | Same strengths and weaknesses as the Zephyr. It lifts more payload and costs more. |
| Pegasus XL | F | No practical use. The Electron beats it where it counts: more payload, higher orbits, lower price. In real life it launches from the air, which might help, but the game does not give it that advantage. |
| Argus | C | The cheapest medium Earth orbit (MEO) rocket to buy new. The Falcon 9 is better unless you need to put a payload under 4 tons into a 2,000–5,000 km orbit. For those few contracts, the Argus is the right choice. |
| Soyuz-FG | D | Loses to the Falcon 9 in everything except new-buy cost, though it fits on a small launchpad. It also loses to the Argus in everything except payload. You will need one for the task list, but there is little reason to buy another. |
| Hydra | D | Expensive and unreliable, but very light on fuel and fits on a small launchpad. At typical fuel prices, a launch costs about the same as a reused Falcon Heavy, with slightly less delta-V and only about 5% of the payload. Not worth buying. |
Medium Rockets
| Vehicle | Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Falcon 9 | A | Reuse cuts its price by more than half, as long as the rocket survives. It burns more fuel than you would expect, but its payload rating is excellent. It handles almost every LEO job and many MEO ones. |
| Atlas V | A | More useful than it looks. Its real rival is the larger Falcon Heavy, not the Falcon 9. For light payloads to the Moon and the inner planets, it is the cheapest, lightest and most fuel-efficient option. |
| Lunaris-1 | D | Reaches a higher Earth orbit than any rocket cheaper than the Erebus, with a fair payload. The Falcon Heavy is usually the better pick and costs less when reused. For the rare Earth orbit mission at 100,000–300,000 km, though, this is the rocket to use. |
| Chimera | F | Always worse than the Falcon Heavy, unless you have to launch from a Medium launchpad. |
| Ariane 5 | F | Uses less fuel than the Falcon Heavy but loses on everything else. Even bought new, it costs so much more that a Falcon Heavy plus the extra fuel still works out cheaper. |
Heavy Rockets
| Vehicle | Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Falcon Heavy | S | Cheap, with a huge payload and the reach for interplanetary trips. Reuse makes it flexible and even cheaper. Watch your fuel prices, since each launch burns nearly 1.5 megatons. It is strong enough to make most rockets in its class pointless. |
| Titan IV | F | Similar capabilities to the Falcon Heavy, but more than twice the price even when bought new, and it lifts only half as much. |
| Ares-1 | B | Good delta-V and a reasonable payload. A budget alternative to the Saturn V for reaching the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, if you pick your launch windows carefully. |
| Kronos Heavy | C | An enormous payload you will almost never need. In other respects it performs much like the Ares-1. Handy to have for those rare cases. |
| N1 | D | Slightly more delta-V than the Ares-1 and Kronos Heavy, but not enough to matter. It costs 80% of a Saturn V, which beats it in everything except price. Skip it. |
| STS | F | The Shuttle gets only an 8% reuse discount. A more realistic version might be usable, but as it stands it has no real use. |
| Saturn V | A | An excellent rocket for the outer planets, and cheap for what it can do. |
| SLS Block 1 | F | The cheaper Saturn V beats it in every area. Do not buy it. |
Superheavy Rockets
The game lists all of these as Heavy, but they are a separate class from the rockets above.
| Vehicle | Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Prometheus Heavy | A | Launches are limited to direct ascent, so its jump to 21,000 delta-V is extremely valuable. It burns a lot of fuel and costs a lot, but many contracts leave you no real alternative. |
| Hyperion | C | Costs 65% more than the Prometheus Heavy for 10% more rocket. Poor value, though some jobs still call for it. |
| Helios | B | Costs 50% more than the Hyperion for 15% more rocket, and some contracts do need that extra delta-V. Use it when you must, and pick a cheaper rocket whenever one will do. |
| Erebus | D | Fair value on paper, but you will never need it. Choose better launch windows instead. |
| Daedalus | D | The Erebus taken a step further. |