Head to head

Ariane 44L vs Atlas V 401

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 V 401: 9,050 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 V 401
Flights flown	40	41
Success rate	97.5%	100%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,200	9,050
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,950	4,950
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,395	3,827
Length (m)	58.7	58.3
Diameter (m)	3.8	3.8
Launch mass (t)	484	590
Stages	2	2

Ariane 44L

Flight record

97.5% success rate39 of 40 flown · 1 failed

1989peak 2002 · 6 flights2003

Maiden flight 1989-06-05. Retired.

Atlas V 401

Flight record

100% success rate41 of 41 flown

2002peak 2014 · 7 flights2022

Maiden flight 2002-08-21. Retired.

Ariane 44L is built by Aérospatiale of France (company profile on Space Index).Atlas V 401 is built by United Launch Alliance of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Ariane 44L · Atlas V 401.

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