Head to head

Long March 4B 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 4B: 4,200 kg

Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat: 8,200 kg

Side by side

9 comparable figures

The highlighted value wins the row. Rows where neither direction is better, like length or stage count, highlight nothing.

Metric	Long March 4B	Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat
Flights flown	58	26
Success rate	98.3%	92.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	4,200	8,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	1,500	3,250
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,961	4,150
Length (m)	44.1	46.3
Diameter (m)	3.35	2.95
Launch mass (t)	249	312
Stages	3	4

Long March 4B

Flight record

98.3% success rate57 of 58 flown · 1 failed

1999peak 2020 · 5 flights2026

Maiden flight 1999-05-10. 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 4B 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 4B · 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.