On 25/10/2011 10:39 AM, Brian Thorn wrote:
On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:49:16 +1100, Alan Erskine
wrote:

http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20111020

"Now that the Space Shuttle program has ended, the United States relies
on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for astronaut transport, costing
American taxpayers as much as $62 million a seat. By comparison, Dragon
is designed to carry seven astronauts at a time for an unparalleled $20
million per seat."

Roughly one-tenth the cost of STS.

Of course, Shuttle lugged along 50,000 lbs. of goodies in the payload
bay...

Brian

It never (or very rarely) carried that much. What was the heaviest
payload _actually_ carried?