![An artist’s conception of the Lucy and Psyche spacecraft](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/psyche20170524.jpg?w=1024)
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/KSC-20220301-PH-KMO06_0015_large.jpg?w=817)
![Gif image of CubeSats being deployed](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/csli_compliation_gif.gif?w=480)
Launch Services Program
NASA’s Launch Services Program (LSP) is responsible for launching rockets delivering spacecraft that observe the Earth, visit other planets and explore the universe – from weather satellites to telescopes to Mars rovers and more.
LSP functions as a broker, matching spacecraft with the best-suited rockets, managing the launch process, providing support from pre-mission planning to post-launch. LSP helps implement NASA’s policy of a mixed-fleet launch strategy, which uses both existing and emerging domestic launch capabilities to assure access to space.
Latest News
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ksc-20240614-ph-jbs01-0077large.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1)
NASA Sets Launch Coverage for NOAA Weather Satellite
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/prefirelaunch2060524-dbe1b6.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1)
NASA Launches Second Small Climate Satellite to Study Earth’s Poles
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ksc-20240528-ph-kls02-0025orig-1.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1)
NASA’s Europa Clipper Unpacks in Florida
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/prefirelaunch.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1)
NASA Launches Small Climate Satellite to Study Earth’s Poles
Rockets
Northrop Grumman Antares
Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket is a two-stage vehicle with optional third stage that provides low-Earth orbit launch capability for payloads weighing up to 8,000 kg. Today the rocket is primarily used to support the company’s Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
Read More![A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, with the company’s Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches at 6:01 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, from the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport’s Pad-0A, at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/wff-2021-055-017_orig.jpg?w=1024)
United Launch Alliance Atlas V
Atlas V uses a standard common core booster, up to five solid rocket boosters (SRBs), a Centaur upper stage in a single- or dual-engine configuration, and one of several sizes of payload fairings.
Read More![A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Mars 2020 mission.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mars-2020.jpg?w=1024)
SpaceX Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe 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 refly the most expensive parts of the rocket, which in turn drives down the cost of space access.
Read More![NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, spacecraft is seen atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/dart.jpg?w=1024)
SpaceX Falcon Heavy
Falcon Heavy is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft. As one of the world’s most powerful operational rockets, Falcon Heavy can lift nearly 64 metric tons (141,000 lbs.) to orbit.
Read More![NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, lifts off from Kennedy Space Center’s historic Launch Complex 39A in Florida.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ksc-20231013-ph-spx01-0008.jpg?w=1024)
Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL
The three-stage Pegasus rocket is used to deploy small satellites weighing up to 1,000 pounds (453.59 kg) 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.
Read More![The Stargazer aircraft, with Pegasus XL beneath, containing NASA's ICON, on the Skid Strip at CCAFS in Florida.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/pegasus_icon_on_runway.jpg?w=1024)
Rocket Lab Electron
Rocket Lab’s Electron is a reusable orbital-class small rocket. Capturing and reflying Electron’s first stage enables higher launch frequency without expanding production and lowers launch costs. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a third pad at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Read More![A nighttime photography of a black and white rocket just seconds launching off a launch pad, with a plume of bright white smoke just underneath.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/rocket-lab-jan-2023.jpg?w=1024)
Launch Sites
Kennedy Space Center
One of two primary launch sites for NASA’s Launch Vehicles.
Located along Florida’s central Atlantic coast between Jacksonville and Miami, our nation’s premiere spaceport is ideal for spacecraft requiring a west-east or equatorial orbit.
View Site![A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches with NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) spacecraft onboard from Launch Complex 39A, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/51733990422_be2a3d80f0_o.jpeg?w=1024)
Vandenberg Space Force Base
One of two primary launch sites for NASA’s Launch Vehicles.
Located along California’s central coast between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Vandenberg is preferred for spacecraft requiring a north-south, or polar, orbit.
Visit Site![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/dart.jpg?w=1024)
Wallops Flight Facility
Located along the Atlantic Coast on Wallops Island, Virginia.
Operated by Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Wallops is NASA’s principal facility for suborbital research programs.
View Site![A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus resupply spacecraft is seen on the pad at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/wallops.jpg?w=1024)
Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll
An additional Expendable Launch Vehicle launch location in the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific.
The Kwajalein site is located between Hawaii and Australia and is used for missions requiring equatorial orbits and low inclinations.
Visit Site![Orbital Science Corp.'s L-1011 aircraft "Stargazer" flies over the runway on Kwajalein Atoll.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/ksc-2012-3312orig.jpg?w=720)
Additional Launch Sites
Additional launch sites specific to LSP’s VADR launches include Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand; and SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas. Kodiak Island, located in Alaska, is considered one of the best locations in the world for polar launch operations, providing a wide launch azimuth and unobstructed downrange flight path.
Read More![Rocket Lab's Electron rocket is seen at Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/tropics.jpg?w=1024)
Europa Clipper
NASA's Europa Clipper is the first mission to conduct a detailed science investigation of Jupiter's moon Europa. Scientists predict Europa has a salty ocean beneath its icy crust that could hold the building blocks necessary to sustain life.
Learn More about Europa Clipper![NASA'S Europa Clipper Spacecraft](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/europa-clipper.jpg?w=2048)
Upcoming Missions
Learn more about future missions managed by NASA's Launch Services Program.
![Illustration of the ESCAPADE spacecraft in orbit around Mars.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/escapade.jpeg?w=1024)
ESCAPADE
The two ESCAPADE (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers) spacecraft will study the transfer of solar wind energy and momentum through Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere.
![](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/spherex-march2022-update-still01-r08-spacebackg.original.jpg?w=1024)
SPHEREx
The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission will provide the first all-sky spectral survey.
![An artist's rendering of NASA's IMAP in space.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/imap1.jpg?w=1024)
IMAP
IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) will help researchers better understand the boundary of the heliosphere, a sort of magnetic bubble surrounding and protecting our solar system.
Learn More About Launch Services Program
About
CubeSat Launch Initiative
Since its inception, NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative has launched over 150 CubeSats on more than 40 Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) missions.
NASA’s CubeSat Launch initiative (CSLI) provides low-cost access to space for U.S. educational institutions, informal educational institutions such as museums and science centers, non-profits with an education/outreach component, and NASA centers for early career workforce development. The initiative’s intent is to inspire and develop the next generation of scientists, engineers, and technologists by offering a unique opportunity to conduct scientific research and develop/demonstrate novel technologies in space.
Learn More about CubeSat Launch Initiative![The goal of the CHOMPTT mission is to demonstrate new technologies for navigation and satellite networking in space.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/chomptt_ksc-20180412-0029.jpg?w=1536)