Head to head

Space Shuttle vs Zenit-2

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

Space Shuttle: 27,500 kg

Zenit-2: 13,740 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	Space Shuttle	Zenit-2
Flights flown	135	35
Success rate	98.5%	82.9%
Payload to LEO (kg)	27,500	13,740
Liftoff thrust (kN)	28,200	7,300
Length (m)	56.1	57
Diameter (m)	8	3.9
Launch mass (t)	2030	459
Stages	2	2

Space Shuttle

Flight record

98.5% success rate133 of 135 flown · 2 failed

1981peak 1985 · 9 flights2011

Maiden flight 1981-04-12. Retired.

Zenit-2

Flight record

82.9% success rate29 of 35 flown · 6 failed

1985peak 1987 · 5 flights2004

Maiden flight 1985-04-13. Retired.

Space Shuttle is built by National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States (company profile on Space Index).Zenit-2 is built by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine.

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: Space Shuttle · Zenit-2.

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