Head to head

Long March 3B vs Space Shuttle

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

Space Shuttle: 27,500 kg

Side by side

10 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	Space Shuttle
Flights flown	24	135
Success rate	87.5%	98.5%
Payload to LEO (kg)	11,500	27,500
Launch cost	$70M	$450M
Cost per kg to LEO	$6,087	$16,364
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,923	28,200
Length (m)	54.8	56.1
Diameter (m)	3.35	8
Launch mass (t)	426	2030
Stages	3	2

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.

Space Shuttle

Flight record

98.5% success rate133 of 135 flown · 2 failed

1981peak 1985 · 9 flights2011

Maiden flight 1981-04-12. Retired.

Long March 3B is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Space Shuttle is built by National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Long March 3B · Space Shuttle.

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