Head to head

Long March 2D vs Vega-C

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

Vega-C: 3,300 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	Vega-C
Flights flown	101	8
Success rate	99%	87.5%
Payload to LEO (kg)	3,500	3,300
Payload to SSO (kg)	1,300	2,230
Launch cost	$30M	$48M
Cost per kg to LEO	$8,571	$14,545
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,962	2,974
Length (m)	38.3	34.8
Diameter (m)	3.35	3
Launch mass (t)	232	210
Stages	2	4

Long March 2D

Flight record

99% success rate100 of 101 flown · 1 failed

1992peak 2022 · 14 flights2026

Maiden flight 1992-08-09. Still flying.

Vega-C

Flight record

87.5% success rate7 of 8 flown · 1 failed

2022peak 2026 · 4 flights2026

Maiden flight 2022-07-13. Still flying.

Long March 2D is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Vega-C is built by Avio S.p.A of Italy (company profile on Space Index).

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

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