Head to head

Ariane 44L vs Falcon 9

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

Falcon 9: 22,800 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	Falcon 9
Flights flown	40	697
Success rate	97.5%	99.4%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,200	22,800
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,950	8,300
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,395	7,607
Length (m)	58.7	70
Diameter (m)	3.8	3.65
Launch mass (t)	484	549
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.

Falcon 9

Flight record

99.4% success rate693 of 697 flown · 4 failed

2010peak 2025 · 165 flights2026

Maiden flight 2018-05-11. Still flying.

Ariane 44L is built by Aérospatiale of France (company profile on Space Index).Falcon 9 is built by SpaceX of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Ariane 44L · Falcon 9.

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