Head to head

H-IIA 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

H-IIA: 10,000 kg

Long March 2D: 3,500 kg

Side by side

10 comparable figures

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

Metric	H-IIA	Long March 2D
Flights flown	50	101
Success rate	98%	99%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,000	3,500
Launch cost	$90M	$30M
Cost per kg to LEO	$9,000	$8,571
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,260	2,962
Length (m)	53	38.3
Diameter (m)	4	3.35
Launch mass (t)	285	232
Stages	2	2

H-IIA

Flight record

98% success rate49 of 50 flown · 1 failed

2001peak 2017 · 6 flights2025

Maiden flight 2001-08-29. 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.

H-IIA is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan (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: H-IIA · 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.