Retired Rockets:

The rockets that has taken us from being Earthbound to a space fairing civilization. This list comprimises rockets that have either retired or that is close to being retired.

Let's have a look at some of the rockets that has brought us this far.

V2 Rocket

The V-2 rocket was the first artificial object to travel into space.

Photo Credit : Heriberto Arribas Abato, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

R-7 Semyorka

The R-7 Semyorka (Russian: Р-7 Семёрка), officially the GRAU index 8K71, was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile.

Photo Credit : U.S. Army , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Juno I

The Juno I was a four-stage American booster rocket that launched America's first satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958.

Photo Credit : Bubba73 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Thor-Able

The Thor-Able was an American expendable launch system and sounding rocket used for a series of re-entry vehicle tests and satellite launches between 1958 and 1960.

Photo Credit : By GW_Simulations, Attribution, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3847731

The Sputnik rocket was an uncrewed orbital carrier rocket designed by Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union, derived from the R-7 Semyorka ICBM. On 4 October 1957, it was used to perform the world's first satellite launch, placing Sputnik 1 into a low Earth orbit.

Photo Credit : techred, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Common

Vostok-K

On 12 April 1961, a Vostok-K rocket was used to launch Vostok 1, the first manned spaceflight, which made Yuri Gagarin the first human to fly in space.

Atlas Agena Lunar orbiter 4. Photo Credit : Nasa , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Atlas-Agena

The Atlas-Agena was a two-and-a-half-stage rocket, with a stage-and-a-half Atlas missile as the first stage, and an RM-81 Agena second stage. Initially, Atlas D missiles, redesignated as the LV-3, were used as the first stage. These were later replaced by the standardized Atlas SLV-3, and its derivatives, the SLV-3A and B. The final Atlas-Agena launch used an Atlas E/F.

Photo Credit : Later derivative Soyuz U : NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Soyuz 11A511

The Soyuz 11A511 type, a member of the R-7 family of rockets, first flew in 1966. Derived from the Voskhod 11A57 type, It was a two-stage rocket, with four liquid-fuelled strap-on boosters clustered around the first stage, with a Block I second stage. The first four test launches were all failures, but eventually it worked.[2] The new, uprated core stage and strap-ons became standard for all R-7 derived launch vechiles.

Photo Credit : Nasa , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Atlas LV-3B

The Atlas LV-3B, Atlas D Mercury Launch Vehicle or Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle, was a human-rated launch system and was used by the United States for Project Mercury to send astronauts into low Earth orbit.

Protok K Rocket. Photo Credit : Nasa , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proton (UR-500)

Proton (Russian: Протон) (formal designation: UR-500) is an expendable launch system used for both commercial and Russian government space launches.

Diamant B launch. Photo Credit : ESA : http://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2009/11/Diamant_B_launch_Kourou_1970.

Diamant

The Diamant rocket (Diamant is French for "diamond") was the first exclusively French expendable launch system.

Saturn V

The Saturn V was an American super heavy-lift launch vehicle certified for human flight. It was used by NASA between 1967-1973 and also launched the first humans that landed on the moon.

L:ong March 1 Photo Credit : Heriberto Arribas Abato, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Long March 1

The Long March 1 (长征一号), also known as the Changzheng-1 (CZ-1), was the first member of China's Long March rocket family. Like the U.S.'s and the Soviet Union's first rockets, it was based on a class of ballistic missiles, namely the Dong Feng 3 class.

Soyuz 18 booster on the launch pad 1975. Photo Credit : Nasa , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Soyuz-U

The Soyuz-U launch vehicle was an improved version of the original Soyuz rocket. Soyuz-U was part of the R-7 family of rockets based on the R-7 Semyorka missile.

Model of an European rocket Ariane 1 in the Museum of Air and Space. Photo Credit : ignis, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

Ariane 1

Ariane 1 was the first rocket in the Ariane family of expendable launch systems. It was developed and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), which had been formed in 1973, the same year that development of the launch had commenced.

Delta 2914 launching IUE spacecraft on Jan. 26, 1978. Photo Credit : NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA-KSC), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Delta 2000

The Delta 2000 series was an American expendable launch system which was used to conduct forty-four orbital launches between 1974 and 1981.

Space shuttle Discovery launch. Photo Credit : NASA; edited by jjron (tilt corrected), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by NASA as part of the Space Shuttle program.

Saturn V SA-513 lifts off to boost the Skylab into orbit. Photo Credit : Nasa , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Titan 23G

The Titan 23G, Titan II(23)G, Titan 2(23)G or Titan II SLV was an American expendable launch system derived from the LGM-25C Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile.

Long March 3. Photo Credit : GW_Simulations, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons

Long March 3

The Long March 3 (Chinese: 长征三号火箭), also known as the Changzheng 3, CZ-3 and LM-3, was a Chinese orbital carrier rocket design.

A Delta II rocket launches from Cape Canaveral carrying the Dawn spacecraft. Photo Credit : NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA-KSC), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Delta II

Delta II was an expendable launch system, originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas.

Ariane 42P rocket with the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite (Kourou, August 10, 1992). Photo Credit : NASA Kennedy Space Center (NASA-KSC), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ariane 4

The Ariane 4 was a European expendable space launch system, developed by the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA)

Lockheed Martin Atlas II A launch vehicle (AC-132). Photo Credit : U.S. Department of Defense, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Atlas II

Atlas II was a member of the Atlas family of launch vehicles, which evolved from the successful Atlas missile program of the 1950s

Athena 2 with Lunar Prospector (Jan. 1998). Photo Credit : NASA , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Athena

Athena was a 1990s Lockheed Martin expendable launch system which underwent several name changes in its lifetime.

Athena 2 with Lunar Prospector (Jan. 1998). Photo Credit : SpaceX , via Wikimedia Commons.

Falcon 1

The Falcon 1 was an expendable launch system privately developed and manufactured by SpaceX during 2006–2009.

"Rocket science has been mythologized all out of proportion to its true difficulty."

-John Carmack

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