Head to head

Long March 2D vs Soyuz 2.1a

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 2D: 3,500 kg

Soyuz 2.1a: 7,020 kg

Side by side

11 comparable figures

The highlighted value wins the row. Rows where neither direction is better, like length or stage count, highlight nothing.

Metric	Long March 2D	Soyuz 2.1a
Flights flown	101	58
Success rate	99%	98.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	3,500	7,020
Payload to SSO (kg)	1,300	4,230
Launch cost	$30M	$80M
Cost per kg to LEO	$8,571	$11,396
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,962	4,149
Length (m)	38.3	46.3
Diameter (m)	3.35	2.95
Launch mass (t)	232	312
Stages	2	3

Long March 2D

Flight record

99% success rate100 of 101 flown · 1 failed

1992peak 2022 · 14 flights2026

Maiden flight 1992-08-09. Still flying.

Soyuz 2.1a

Flight record

98.3% success rate57 of 58 flown · 1 failed

2004peak 2023 · 7 flights2026

Maiden flight 2004-11-04. Still flying.

Long March 2D is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Soyuz 2.1a is built by Progress Rocket Space Center of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Long March 2D · Soyuz 2.1a.

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