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This thread made me curious, what's the most amount of stages a rocket has been launched with?


I'm guessing you mean stages to LEO, but technically Apollo was a six-stage rocket.

1. Saturn V first stage

2. Saturn V second stage

3. Saturn V third stage

4. Lunar module descent stage

5. Lunar module ascent stage

6. Service module for Earth return.


There are a couple of four-stage rockets. For example the Proton has a couple of four-stage variants, and India's primary workhorse, the PSLV, has four stages in all configurations.

Five stage rockets are a lot more exotic. There is the Minotaur V, which was launched exactly once, and India's ASLV, which they abandoned after a couple launches due to budget issues.




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