List of rocket stages

Rocket upper stages are optimized for operation at the edge of space.

Upper stages

bold denotes active configurations
italics denotes configurations in development

Name	Country	Flown on	Proposed for	Status	Remarks
Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage	United States		Vulcan	Development paused
Agena	United States	Atlas, Thor, Thorad, Titan IIIB		Retired
AVUM	ESA/ Italy	Vega, Vega C		In service
Gamma-2	United Kingdom	Black Arrow		Retired
Blok D	Soviet Union Russia	N1, Proton, Proton-K		Retired
Blok DM-03	Russia	Proton-M	Angara A5	In service
Blok DM-SL	Soviet Union Russia	Zenit-3SL		In service
Briz-KM	Russia	Rokot	Angara 1.2	In service
Briz-M	Russia	Proton-K, Proton-M, Angara A5		In service
Castor 30	United States	Antares		In service
Centaur	United States	Atlas, Atlas G, Atlas I, Atlas II, Atlas III, Atlas V, Titan IIIE, Titan IV, Vulcan		In service
CTS	China	Long March 2C		In service
Delta Cryogenic Second Stage	United States	Delta III, Delta IV, Space Launch System Block I (as Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage)		In service
Electron Second Stage	New Zealand	Electron		In service
Exploration Upper Stage	United States		Space Launch System	In development
Falcon 9 Second Stage	United States	Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy		In service
Fregat	Russia	Soyuz-U, Soyuz-FG, Soyuz-2, Zenit-3F		In service
Inertial Upper Stage	United States	Titan 34D, Titan IV, Space Shuttle		Retired
KVTK	Russia		Angara A5, Energia	In development
PAM-G	India		Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle	In development
Payload Assist Module/Star-48B	United States	Delta 3000, Delta 4000, Delta II, Space Shuttle	Delta 5000	In service
Salman	Iran	Qased, Qaem-100		In Service
Saman-1	Iran	Simorgh		In Service
Starship	United States		Starship	In development	It is reusable, and is meant to use orbital refueling.
Transtage	United States	Titan IIIA, Titan IIIC, Titan 34D		Retired
Volga	Russia	Soyuz-2.1a, Soyuz-2-1v
Yuanzheng-1	China	Long March 3B, Long March 3C		In service
Yuanzheng-1A	China	Long March 7		In service
Yuanzheng-2	China	Long March 5		In service

References

↑ Passive Rocket Diffuser Testing: Reacting Flow Performance of Advanced Configurations (Technical report). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2022. NASA/TP-20220017084.

[1] Passive Rocket Diffuser Testing: Reacting Flow Performance of Advanced Configurations (Technical report). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 2022. NASA/TP-20220017084.

v t e Upper stages
Active	AVUM Briz Castor 30 Centaur CTS / SMA DCSS DM-03 Fregat Star 27 37 48 Starship Volga Yuanzheng
Planned	KVTK
Retired	Agena Able Altair Astris Blok 2BL Blok D Burner Delta D K P EPKM FG-02 Ikar Inertial Upper Stage KVD-1 Payload Assist Module Saturn S-II S-IV S-IVB Transfer Orbit Stage Transtage
Cancelled	Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage Earth Departure Stage Exploration Upper Stage

List of rocket stages

Upper stages

See also

References