Head to head

Soyuz-U vs Soyuz-U-PVB

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

Soyuz-U: 7,050 kg

Soyuz-U-PVB: 6,900 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	Soyuz-U	Soyuz-U-PVB
Flights flown	71	74
Success rate	100%	97.3%
Payload to LEO (kg)	7,050	6,900
Length (m)	34.54	51
Diameter (m)	2.95	3
Launch mass (t)	298	313
Stages	2	2

Soyuz-U

Flight record

100% success rate71 of 71 flown

1982peak 1987 · 10 flights1995

Maiden flight 1982-12-23. Retired.

Soyuz-U-PVB

Flight record

97.3% success rate72 of 74 flown · 2 failed

1984peak 1999 · 9 flights2009

Maiden flight 1984-03-21. Retired.

Soyuz-U is built by Soviet Space Program of Russia.Soyuz-U-PVB is built by Progress Rocket Space Center of Russia.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Soyuz-U · Soyuz-U-PVB.

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