Head to head

Long March 3B/E vs Long March 4B

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 3B/E: 12,000 kg

Long March 4B: 4,200 kg

Side by side

9 comparable figures

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

Metric	Long March 3B/E	Long March 4B
Flights flown	78	58
Success rate	97.4%	98.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	12,000	4,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	5,500	1,500
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,924	2,961
Length (m)	56.3	44.1
Diameter (m)	3.35	3.35
Launch mass (t)	456	249
Stages	3	3

Long March 3B/E

Flight record

97.4% success rate76 of 78 flown · 2 failed

2007peak 2025 · 13 flights2026

Maiden flight 2007-05-13. Still flying.

Long March 4B

Flight record

98.3% success rate57 of 58 flown · 1 failed

1999peak 2020 · 5 flights2026

Maiden flight 1999-05-10. Still flying.

Long March 3B/E is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Long March 4B is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Long March 3B/E · Long March 4B.

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