Head to head

Proton-M Briz-M vs Soyuz-U

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

Proton-M Briz-M: 21,000 kg

Soyuz-U: 7,050 kg

Side by side

7 comparable figures

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

Metric	Proton-M Briz-M	Soyuz-U
Flights flown	68	71
Success rate	91.2%	100%
Payload to LEO (kg)	21,000	7,050
Length (m)	53	34.54
Diameter (m)	7.4	2.95
Launch mass (t)	712	298
Stages	4	2

Proton-M Briz-M

Flight record

91.2% success rate62 of 68 flown · 6 failed

2001peak 2013 · 9 flights2023

Maiden flight 2001-04-07. Still flying.

Soyuz-U

Flight record

100% success rate71 of 71 flown

1982peak 1987 · 10 flights1995

Maiden flight 1982-12-23. Retired.

Proton-M Briz-M is built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia (company profile on Space Index).Soyuz-U is built by Soviet Space Program of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Proton-M Briz-M · Soyuz-U.

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