Head to head

H-IIA vs Soyuz U

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: 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
Flights flown	50	714
Success rate	98%	97.2%
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,000	6,900
Length (m)	53	51.1
Diameter (m)	4	2.95
Launch mass (t)	285	313
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 U

Flight record

97.2% success rate694 of 714 flown · 20 failed

1973peak 1979 · 47 flights2017

Maiden flight 1973-05-18. Retired.

H-IIA is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan (company profile on Space Index).Soyuz U is built by Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) of Russia.

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

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