Head to head

Falcon 9 vs H-IIA

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

Falcon 9: 22,800 kg

H-IIA: 10,000 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	Falcon 9	H-IIA
Flights flown	697	50
Success rate	99.4%	98%
Payload to LEO (kg)	22,800	10,000
Payload to GTO (kg)	8,300	4,100
Launch cost	$52M	$90M
Cost per kg to LEO	$2,281	$9,000
Liftoff thrust (kN)	7,607	2,260
Length (m)	70	53
Diameter (m)	3.65	4
Launch mass (t)	549	285
Stages	2	2

Falcon 9

Flight record

99.4% success rate693 of 697 flown · 4 failed

2010peak 2025 · 165 flights2026

Maiden flight 2018-05-11. Still flying.

H-IIA

Flight record

98% success rate49 of 50 flown · 1 failed

2001peak 2017 · 6 flights2025

Maiden flight 2001-08-29. Retired.

Falcon 9 is built by SpaceX of the United States (company profile on Space Index).H-IIA is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Falcon 9 · H-IIA.

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