Head to head

Long March 3B vs Vulcan VC6L

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

Vulcan VC6L: 27,200 kg

Side by side

8 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	Vulcan VC6L
Flights flown	24	0
Payload to LEO (kg)	11,500	27,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	5,100	15,300
Liftoff thrust (kN)	5,923	18,110
Length (m)	54.8	67.4
Diameter (m)	3.35	5.4
Launch mass (t)	426	877
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.

Vulcan VC6L

Flight record

Maiden flight not recorded. Still flying.

Long March 3B is built by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation of China.Vulcan VC6L is built by United Launch Alliance of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Long March 3B · Vulcan VC6L.

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