Head to head

Atlas V 401 vs Long March 2D

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 V 401: 9,050 kg

Long March 2D: 3,500 kg

Side by side

11 comparable figures

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

Metric	Atlas V 401	Long March 2D
Flights flown	41	101
Success rate	100%	99%
Payload to LEO (kg)	9,050	3,500
Payload to SSO (kg)	6,670	1,300
Launch cost	$115M	$30M
Cost per kg to LEO	$12,707	$8,571
Liftoff thrust (kN)	3,827	2,962
Length (m)	58.3	38.3
Diameter (m)	3.8	3.35
Launch mass (t)	590	232
Stages	2	2

Atlas V 401

Flight record

100% success rate41 of 41 flown

2002peak 2014 · 7 flights2022

Maiden flight 2002-08-21. Retired.

Long March 2D

Flight record

99% success rate100 of 101 flown · 1 failed

1992peak 2022 · 14 flights2026

Maiden flight 1992-08-09. Still flying.

Atlas V 401 is built by United Launch Alliance of the United States (company profile on Space Index).Long March 2D is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Atlas V 401 · Long March 2D.

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