[Moonman62]

For that first flight test, the rocket will be able to launch 70 metric tons (77 tons) of payload into low-Earth orbit, almost three times what the space shuttle could carry.

The orbiter itself was over 80 metric tons.

[NorthMountain]

The orbiter itself wasn’t considered “payload”.

[SunkenCiv]

97 tons was the landing weight — imagine if that most of that dead weight had been used for payload, we’d have a freakin’ colony on Mars and a city on the Moon.