Rocket Lab vs ISS Explorer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rocket Lab
Design, build, and launch virtual rockets as a rocket engineer. Make critical decisions about components like propellant and control systems to ensure mission success. Explore suborbital, orbital, and escape velocity missions with this educational simulation.
- Design virtual rockets
- Choose rocket components
- Personalize rocket name
- Launch and observe flight
- Modify for mission success
- Explore different mission types
Read full descriptionHide full description
What does it take to be a rocket scientist? You are a rocket engineer for a space exploration company. Your job is to design a series of rockets and attempt suborbital, orbital, and escape velocity missions. Successfully designing and launching a rocket into space is extremely difficult, expensive, and full of tough choices. Rocket components such as shape, propellant, control system, and staging affect the way a rocket flies. With each new mission, you must take into consideration each component’s reliability, cost, and performance. Have you chosen a powerful enough propellant? Is your control system prone to high failure rates? Failure is not an option here! The decisions you make will directly affect the success or failure of your rocket – and your space exploration company – because this is rocket science. With the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Rocket Lab, you can: - Build a virtual rocket by choosing its shape, number of stages, propellant, and control mechanism - Personalize your rocket with your name - Launch your rocket and watch how well it flies - Modify your rocket to test out different combinations and achieve mission success
ISS Explorer
Explore a detailed 3D model of the International Space Station. Rotate, zoom, and select individual components to learn about their function and systems. Organize your view by turning parts and labels on or off.
- Interactive 3D ISS model
- Rotate and zoom functionality
- Selectable parts with isolation
- Detailed information on components
- Hierarchical part organization
- Toggle parts and labels
Read full descriptionHide full description
The ISS explorer is an interactive tool for exploring the parts and pieces of the International Space Station (ISS). The application allows the user to view a 3D model of the ISS, rotate it, zoom into it, and select different parts and pieces. When the application starts, you can see a view of the entire ISS with category labels. Tabs are available on the left hand side of the screen which allow you access to information, the hierarchy, settings and application information. From this point, you can zoom into the station, revealing more labels of visible parts. The station can also be rotated to view from different angles. If a part is selected, the part is isolated so that you can focus on the specific piece. The information tab shows information about the currently isolated part. Inside the hierarchy tab, you can turn parts on or off, turn labels for parts on or off, turn parts transparent, or select a part to focus on. The parts are organized in a hierarchy to allow for systems to be described and displayed. This includes things such as truss, modules, and external platforms. The Information tab shows information about the current isolated part, system, or the full ISS if the entire station is shown.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: ISS Explorer at 100% against Rocket Lab's 23%. ISS Explorer also leads on rating (4.9 vs 2.9) and device support (3 vs 1). Rocket Lab's advantage is iOS requirement (6.0 vs 13.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ISS Explorer holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 13 and 16 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 23% of Rocket Lab's written reviews are positive against 100% of ISS Explorer's.
| Parameter | Rocket Lab | ISS Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (13 ratings) | 4.9 (16 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 23.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 13 | 16 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 10 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 218 MB | 747 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Smithsonian Institution | NASA |
Customer experience
Rocket Lab
ISS Explorer
In-app purchases
Rocket Lab
No in-app purchases
ISS Explorer
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Rocket Lab free?
Is ISS Explorer free?
Which has better reviews, Rocket Lab or ISS Explorer?
Do Rocket Lab or ISS Explorer have ads?
Other comparisons















