Head to head

Long March 3B vs Tsiklon-3

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

Tsiklon-3: 4,100 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	Tsiklon-3
Flights flown	24	122
Success rate	87.5%	94.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	11,500	4,100
Launch cost	$70M	$15M
Cost per kg to LEO	$6,087	$3,659
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,923	2,713
Length (m)	54.8	39.27
Diameter (m)	3.35	3
Launch mass (t)	426	189
Stages	3	3

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.

Tsiklon-3

Flight record

94.3% success rate115 of 122 flown · 7 failed

1977peak 1985 · 12 flights2009

Maiden flight 1977-06-24. Retired.

Long March 3B is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Tsiklon-3 is built by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine.

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

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