Head to head

Long March 3B/E vs Soyuz U

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

Soyuz U: 6,900 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 3B/E	Soyuz U
Flights flown	78	714
Success rate	97.4%	97.2%
Payload to LEO (kg)	12,000	6,900
Length (m)	56.3	51.1
Diameter (m)	3.35	2.95
Launch mass (t)	456	313
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.

Soyuz U

Flight record

97.2% success rate694 of 714 flown · 20 failed

1973peak 1979 · 47 flights2017

Maiden flight 1973-05-18. Retired.

Long March 3B/E is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Soyuz U is built by Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) of Russia.

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

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