Head to head

Atlas IIA 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

Atlas IIA: 6,580 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	Atlas IIA	Atlas V 401
Flights flown	23	41
Success rate	100%	100%
Payload to LEO (kg)	6,580	9,050
Payload to GTO (kg)	2,810	4,950
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,479	3,827
Length (m)	47.54	58.3
Diameter (m)	3.04	3.8
Launch mass (t)	204	590
Stages	3	2

Atlas IIA

Flight record

100% success rate23 of 23 flown

1992peak 1996 · 4 flights2002

Maiden flight 1992-06-10. Retired.

Atlas V 401

Flight record

100% success rate41 of 41 flown

2002peak 2014 · 7 flights2022

Maiden flight 2002-08-21. Retired.

Atlas IIA is built by Lockheed Martin of the United States (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: Atlas IIA · 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.