Head to head

Long March 2C vs Tsiklon-2

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

Tsiklon-2: 2,820 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	Tsiklon-2
Flights flown	66	105
Success rate	98.5%	98.1%
Payload to LEO (kg)	3,850	2,820
Length (m)	42	39.7
Diameter (m)	3.35	3
Launch mass (t)	233	182
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.

Tsiklon-2

Flight record

98.1% success rate103 of 105 flown · 2 failed

1969peak 1976 · 8 flights2006

Maiden flight 1969-08-06. Retired.

Long March 2C is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Tsiklon-2 is built by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine.

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

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