Head to head

H-IIA vs Long March 3B/E

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 3B/E: 12,000 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	H-IIA	Long March 3B/E
Flights flown	50	78
Success rate	98%	97.4%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,000	12,000
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,100	5,500
Launch cost	$90M	$70M
Cost per kg to LEO	$9,000	$5,833
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,260	5,924
Length (m)	53	56.3
Diameter (m)	4	3.35
Launch mass (t)	285	456
Stages	2	3

H-IIA

Flight record

98% success rate49 of 50 flown · 1 failed

2001peak 2017 · 6 flights2025

Maiden flight 2001-08-29. Retired.

Long March 3B/E

Flight record

97.4% success rate76 of 78 flown · 2 failed

2007peak 2025 · 13 flights2026

Maiden flight 2007-05-13. Still flying.

H-IIA is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan (company profile on Space Index).Long March 3B/E is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: H-IIA · Long March 3B/E.

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