Head to head

H-IIA vs Soyuz 2.1a

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

Soyuz 2.1a: 7,020 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	Soyuz 2.1a
Flights flown	50	58
Success rate	98%	98.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,000	7,020
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,100	2,810
Launch cost	$90M	$80M
Cost per kg to LEO	$9,000	$11,396
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,260	4,149
Length (m)	53	46.3
Diameter (m)	4	2.95
Launch mass (t)	285	312
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.

Soyuz 2.1a

Flight record

98.3% success rate57 of 58 flown · 1 failed

2004peak 2023 · 7 flights2026

Maiden flight 2004-11-04. Still flying.

H-IIA is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan (company profile on Space Index).Soyuz 2.1a is built by Progress Rocket Space Center of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: H-IIA · Soyuz 2.1a.

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