Head to head

Ariane 44L vs Atlas IIAS

Two vehicles in the same payload class. Every figure below comes from the same two sources for both rockets, and a row appears only when both publish the input.

Payload to low Earth orbit

Relative

Ariane 44L: 10,200 kg

Atlas IIAS: 6,580 kg

Side by side

9 comparable figures

The highlighted value wins the row. Rows where neither direction is better, like length or stage count, highlight nothing.

Metric	Ariane 44L	Atlas IIAS
Flights flown	40	30
Success rate	97.5%	100%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,200	6,580
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,950	2,810
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,395	4,391
Length (m)	58.7	47.54
Diameter (m)	3.8	3.04
Launch mass (t)	484	204
Stages	2	3

Ariane 44L

Flight record

97.5% success rate39 of 40 flown · 1 failed

1989peak 2002 · 6 flights2003

Maiden flight 1989-06-05. Retired.

Atlas IIAS

Flight record

100% success rate30 of 30 flown

1993peak 1997 · 5 flights2004

Maiden flight 1993-12-16. Retired.

Ariane 44L is built by Aérospatiale of France (company profile on Space Index).Atlas IIAS is built by Lockheed Martin of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Ariane 44L · Atlas IIAS.

Specifications from Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs, launch records from Space Index. Derived figures are computed here; see sources and method.