Head to head

Ariane 44L vs Soyuz-U-PVB

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

Soyuz-U-PVB: 6,900 kg

Side by side

7 comparable figures

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

Metric	Ariane 44L	Soyuz-U-PVB
Flights flown	40	74
Success rate	97.5%	97.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,200	6,900
Length (m)	58.7	51
Diameter (m)	3.8	3
Launch mass (t)	484	313
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.

Soyuz-U-PVB

Flight record

97.3% success rate72 of 74 flown · 2 failed

1984peak 1999 · 9 flights2009

Maiden flight 1984-03-21. Retired.

Ariane 44L is built by Aérospatiale of France (company profile on Space Index).Soyuz-U-PVB is built by Progress Rocket Space Center of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Ariane 44L · Soyuz-U-PVB.

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