Head to head

Atlas V 551 vs Long March 3B

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 551: 18,850 kg

Long March 3B: 11,500 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 551	Long March 3B
Flights flown	23	24
Success rate	100%	87.5%
Payload to LEO (kg)	18,850	11,500
Payload to GTO (kg)	8,890	5,100
Launch cost	$153M	$70M
Cost per kg to LEO	$8,117	$6,087
Liftoff thrust (kN)	12,269	5,923
Length (m)	59.7	54.8
Diameter (m)	3.8	3.35
Launch mass (t)	573	426
Stages	2	3

Atlas V 551

Flight record

100% success rate23 of 23 flown

2006peak 2025 · 5 flights2026

Maiden flight 2006-01-19. Retired.

Long March 3B

Flight record

87.5% success rate21 of 24 flown · 3 failed

1996peak 2020 · 4 flights2023

Maiden flight 1996-02-14. Still flying.

Atlas V 551 is built by United Launch Alliance of the United States (company profile on Space Index).Long March 3B is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Atlas V 551 · Long March 3B.

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