That gives us a data point for a land bus, at least! It sounds like about 40% of max gross weight is payload.
For comparison, the Space Shuttle stack weighs 4.5 million pounds at liftoff and the max payload it can deliver to the space station is 32,000 pounds, giving a ratio of 0.7%. That's not a fair comparison for rockets in general, though, because the Space Shuttle launches a lot more than just its payload. A typical number for rockets in general is about 3% of the liftoff weight delivered to orbit.
__________________
Who are all these people and what do they know? 
|