Head to head

Long March 4B 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 4B: 4,200 kg

Tsiklon-3: 4,100 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 4B	Tsiklon-3
Flights flown	58	122
Success rate	98.3%	94.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	4,200	4,100
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,961	2,713
Length (m)	44.1	39.27
Diameter (m)	3.35	3
Launch mass (t)	249	189
Stages	3	3

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.

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 4B 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 4B · 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.