Head to head

Proton-M Briz-M 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

Proton-M Briz-M: 21,000 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	Proton-M Briz-M	Vulcan VC6L
Flights flown	68	0
Payload to LEO (kg)	21,000	27,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,500	15,300
Liftoff thrust (kN)	10,000	18,110
Length (m)	53	67.4
Diameter (m)	7.4	5.4
Launch mass (t)	712	877
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.

Vulcan VC6L

Flight record

Maiden flight not recorded. Still flying.

Proton-M Briz-M is built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Russia (company profile on Space Index).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: Proton-M Briz-M · 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.