Head to head

H-IIA vs Soyuz-U-PVB

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-U-PVB: 6,900 kg

Side by side

7 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-U-PVB
Flights flown	50	74
Success rate	98%	97.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,000	6,900
Length (m)	53	51
Diameter (m)	4	3
Launch mass (t)	285	313
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.

Soyuz-U-PVB

Flight record

97.3% success rate72 of 74 flown · 2 failed

1984peak 1999 · 9 flights2009

Maiden flight 1984-03-21. Retired.

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

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

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