Head to head

Ariane 44L vs Long March 3B/E

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

Long March 3B/E: 12,000 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	Long March 3B/E
Flights flown	40	78
Success rate	97.5%	97.4%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,200	12,000
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,950	5,500
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,395	5,924
Length (m)	58.7	56.3
Diameter (m)	3.8	3.35
Launch mass (t)	484	456
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.

Long March 3B/E

Flight record

97.4% success rate76 of 78 flown · 2 failed

2007peak 2025 · 13 flights2026

Maiden flight 2007-05-13. Still flying.

Ariane 44L is built by Aérospatiale of France (company profile on Space Index).Long March 3B/E is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Ariane 44L · Long March 3B/E.

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