# Which existing or near future rockets will be able to get to the Moon?

Which existing or planned in nearest future rockets will be able to get to the Moon with a payload of about 1000 kg?

For example with the Astrobotic Lunar Lander: https://spacenews.com/astrobotic-unveils-peregrine-lunar-lander/

According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rocket only 3 rockets can get to the Moon:

• Space Launch System (SLS), USA
• Unified Modular Launch Vehicle, India (?)
• Long March 9, China

How about SpaceX Falcon Heavy, New Glenn, Rocket Lab, Antares, Russian rockets, Firefly, Vector?

• It depends on how you define getting to the Moon. A lunar orbit, a crash on the surface, a return to the Earth with soft landing? A small payload or a manned mission with a Moon walk and safe return to Earth?
– Uwe
Aug 28, 2018 at 12:05
• Related questions: 1. space.stackexchange.com/questions/4793/… 2. space.stackexchange.com/questions/14181/… Aug 28, 2018 at 12:26
• Historically the smallest rocket delivered "at least something" to the Moon was Atlas-Agena with Ranger-7 craft en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_7 Aug 28, 2018 at 12:31
• The question as-is is very fuzzy, IMHO. It would be a better to narrow it down like, "Which current rockets are able to deliver a 100kg lander to the Moon?" or "Which current or planned for the near future rockets would be able to get humans into a lunar orbit?" Aug 28, 2018 at 12:44
• I've added more details. I'm interesting which rockets are able to get the Moon with payload about 1000 kg. For example with the Astrobotic Lunar Lander: spacenews.com/astrobotic-unveils-peregrine-lunar-lander Aug 28, 2018 at 16:06

The Wikipedia list you link to specifies human rated lunar rockets; that's a very short list, because it requires, at minimum, lunar landing and safe return of a multi-ton spacecraft.

For a one-way, 1000 kg lander, many more rockets are capable of the job; any launcher that can get at least 8-10 tons to LEO* could soft-land 1 ton on the lunar surface with an appropriate transfer stage/spacecraft/lander design. That includes, among other designs:

• Falcon 9
• Atlas V
• Delta IV
• Proton
• Long March 5
• Ariane 5
• GSLV Mk III

And possibly Soyuz or Antares.

New Glenn would certainly be able to if it's built; I believe the current Firefly, Vector, and Rocket Lab designs are all too small.

* Assume the transfer and lander stages are using hypergolic fuels with ~3000 m/s exhaust velocity (~305 s Isp). Take a conservative delta-v budget of 3300 m/s for translunar injection orbit, 700 m/s for lunar orbital insertion, 2200 m/s for descent and landing = 6200 m/s. Apply rocket equation:

$$6200 = 3000 \ln \frac {m_0} {m_f}$$

Hit it with the algebra stick...

$$2.067 = \ln \frac {m_0} {m_f}$$

Thus...

$$\frac {m_0} {m_f} = e ^ {2.067} = 7.898$$

Thus the initial (fully fueled) mass could be around 8 times the final (landed) mass.