Head to head

Kuaizhou 1A vs Pegasus XL

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

Kuaizhou 1A: 300 kg

Pegasus XL: 443 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	Kuaizhou 1A	Pegasus XL
Flights flown	31	32
Success rate	90.3%	90.6%
Payload to LEO (kg)	300	443
Length (m)	19.4	17.6
Diameter (m)	1.4	1.27
Launch mass (t)	30	23
Stages	4	3

Kuaizhou 1A

Flight record

90.3% success rate28 of 31 flown · 3 failed

2017peak 2023 · 6 flights2025

Maiden flight 2017-01-09. Still flying.

Pegasus XL

Flight record

90.6% success rate29 of 32 flown · 3 failed

1994peak 1996 · 4 flights2026

Maiden flight 1994-06-27. Still flying.

Kuaizhou 1A is built by ExPace of China (company profile on Space Index).Pegasus XL is built by Orbital Sciences Corporation of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Kuaizhou 1A · Pegasus XL.

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