Head to head

Long March 2C vs Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat

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

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat: 8,200 kg

Side by side

8 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	Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat
Flights flown	66	26
Success rate	98.5%	92.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	3,850	8,200
Payload to SSO (kg)	1,400	4,900
Length (m)	42	46.3
Diameter (m)	3.35	2.95
Launch mass (t)	233	312
Stages	2	4

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.

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat

Flight record

92.3% success rate24 of 26 flown · 2 failed

2006peak 2011 · 4 flights2026

Maiden flight 2006-12-27. Still flying.

Long March 2C is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat is built by Progress Rocket Space Center of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Long March 2C · Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat.

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