Head to head

Long March 3B vs Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat

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: 11,500 kg

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat: 8,200 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 3B	Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat
Flights flown	24	26
Success rate	87.5%	92.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	11,500	8,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	5,100	3,250
Launch cost	$70M	$80M
Cost per kg to LEO	$6,087	$9,756
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,923	4,150
Length (m)	54.8	46.3
Diameter (m)	3.35	2.95
Launch mass (t)	426	312
Stages	3	4

Long March 3B

Flight record

87.5% success rate21 of 24 flown · 3 failed

1996peak 2020 · 4 flights2023

Maiden flight 1996-02-14. Still flying.

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat

Flight record

92.3% success rate24 of 26 flown · 2 failed

2006peak 2011 · 4 flights2026

Maiden flight 2006-12-27. Still flying.

Long March 3B is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat is built by Progress Rocket Space Center of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Long March 3B · Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat.

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