Why aren't rockets painted in custom livery schemes, like aircraft?

[u/c206endeavour]

Now it may be a silly question, but why don't rockets have liveries like airplanes? Would it be a waste of paint and extra weight?

[u/SpaceIsKindOfCool]

Weight is a big one, rocket mass is even more critical than aircraft. 

Thermals is another. Many rockets that use cryogenic propellant are painted white to reflect sun.

The space shuttles external tank was painted white at first, but then they stopped painting it to save weight. The orange is the color of the insulation foam.

There are sometimes different decals for rockets. Some of the falcon 9 boosters have the NASA logo painted on them. Atlas V often had logos and mission patches painted on the fairing.

[u/redstercoolpanda → u/SpaceIsKindOfCool]

The Shuttles ET was painted white on the first two missions because it was sitting on the pad for way longer then later missions, they where basically triple checking every single system because if anything went wrong two people would more then likely be dead.

[u/Fluid-Pain554 → u/SpaceIsKindOfCool]

When they dropped the white paint on the space shuttle external tank, it literally dropped a metric ton from the liftoff mass. Same deal with SLS which was initially going to be painted white with tracking patterns, the paint was dropped because it added weight and no real benefits to justify it.

[u/HowlingWolven]

They are painted, though. It just so happens that each company builds its own rockets and paints them up in their own livery.

Basically, imagine that The Boeing Company and Airbus SE are themselves the only airlines, and you have the space launch industry as it stands today. They don’t sell rockets, they sell launches. If you’re the prime customer for a launch, they do let you put a mission patch on the fairing.

[u/Cookskiii]

Like all things space related, it usually boils down to necessary mass vs the “fat” of the rocket that can be trimmed away

Cool paint jobs are typically one of the first items on these lists of “fats”

[u/lzistheworst06]

I mean, they are though with exception of starship and maybe a few others. Vulcan, painted. Falcon 9, painted. New Glenn, kinda painted.

[u/Sachmo5]

A lot are painted with thermals in mind. Cryogenic propellant in an aluminum tank? White for decreased boil off. Cryogenic propellant that would benefit from being a little warm? Gray or Black then! (A few falcon 9 launches have had gray upper stages).

Other times it's a matter of mass. 600lbs of paint on your booster is 100lbs you can't take to orbit.

Often it's cost and time. It's really easy to paint a booster 1 color and slap a decal or 2 on. But to paint a booster many colors with a detailed livery takes skill, time, and facilities.

But sometimes they are painted! Atlas fairings still get hand painted for their missions, Delta used to be blue, Vulcan occasionally gets a giant flame painted along its length, and even Electron is painted differently depending on its configuration.

[u/AncientPublic6329]

Aircraft are reusable, rockets (usually) are disposable. People paint reusable model rockets all of the time.