Head to head

Falcon 9 vs Proton-M Briz-M

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

Proton-M Briz-M: 21,000 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	Falcon 9	Proton-M Briz-M
Flights flown	697	68
Success rate	99.4%	91.2%
Payload to LEO (kg)	22,800	21,000
Payload to GTO (kg)	8,300	4,500
Liftoff thrust (kN)	7,607	10,000
Length (m)	70	53
Diameter (m)	3.65	7.4
Launch mass (t)	549	712
Stages	2	4

Falcon 9

Flight record

99.4% success rate693 of 697 flown · 4 failed

2010peak 2025 · 165 flights2026

Maiden flight 2018-05-11. Still flying.

Proton-M Briz-M

Flight record

91.2% success rate62 of 68 flown · 6 failed

2001peak 2013 · 9 flights2023

Maiden flight 2001-04-07. Still flying.

Falcon 9 is built by SpaceX of the United States (company profile on Space Index).Proton-M Briz-M is built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Falcon 9 · Proton-M Briz-M.

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