Head to head

Long March 2C vs Tsiklon-3

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-3: 4,100 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-3
Flights flown	66	122
Success rate	98.5%	94.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	3,850	4,100
Length (m)	42	39.27
Diameter (m)	3.35	3
Launch mass (t)	233	189
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-3

Flight record

94.3% success rate115 of 122 flown · 7 failed

1977peak 1985 · 12 flights2009

Maiden flight 1977-06-24. Retired.

Long March 2C is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Tsiklon-3 is built by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine.

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

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