“Due to continued design improvements, this Falcon 9 carried its highest ever payload of 17.5 tons of useful load to a useful orbit” [early 2024] (that’s with a propulsive landing)
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1762019803630563800
(the cargo Dragon has a payload capacity to the ISS of about 3645 pounds; the entire development cost of the Falcon 9 has been under $400 million)
(the Space Shuttle’s payload capacity to LEO was just a nudge above 30 tons; to the ISS, 12 tons; per launch cost was about $500 million)
Isn’t that 500 million “price per launch” of the Space Shuttle a bit low?
I know the Space Shuttle “launch interval was very long. They seldom were launchedcwithin 3 weeks of each other, even when two different Shuttles were used.