Head to head

Long March 2C vs Long March 3B

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

Long March 2C: 3,850 kg

Long March 3B: 11,500 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	Long March 2C	Long March 3B
Flights flown	66	24
Success rate	98.5%	87.5%
Payload to LEO (kg)	3,850	11,500
Length (m)	42	54.8
Diameter (m)	3.35	3.35
Launch mass (t)	233	426
Stages	2	3

Long March 2C

Flight record

98.5% success rate65 of 66 flown · 1 failed

1982peak 2023 · 6 flights2026

Maiden flight 1982-09-09. Still flying.

Long March 3B

Flight record

87.5% success rate21 of 24 flown · 3 failed

1996peak 2020 · 4 flights2023

Maiden flight 1996-02-14. Still flying.

Long March 2C is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Long March 3B is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Long March 2C · Long March 3B.

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