Head to head

Ariane 44L vs Vulcan VC6L

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

Vulcan VC6L: 27,200 kg

Side by side

8 comparable figures

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

Metric	Ariane 44L	Vulcan VC6L
Flights flown	40	0
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,200	27,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,950	15,300
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,395	18,110
Length (m)	58.7	67.4
Diameter (m)	3.8	5.4
Launch mass (t)	484	877
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.

Vulcan VC6L

Flight record

Maiden flight not recorded. Still flying.

Ariane 44L is built by Aérospatiale of France (company profile on Space Index).Vulcan VC6L 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 · Vulcan VC6L.

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