Delta IV Heavy: Heavy Enough for Mars

lid (John Savard) wrote in
:

http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/dellarge.htm

You seem to have misread everything by a factor of ten.
Delta IV Heavy's payload is rated at about 50,000 lbs
to LEO, roughly a fifth the payload of a Saturn V.

Future variants of the Delta IV Heavy could eventually
approach the performance of a Saturn V; hopefully at
lower cost. But we're not there yet.

--Damon

John Savard wrote:
I heard that a big rocket was being launched, but I didn't know *how*
big.

According to
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/dellarge.htm

it can deliver 258,000 kilograms to LEO.

You seem to have misread (or the page was corrected in the meantime):

"LEO Payload: 25,800 kg. to: 185 km Orbit. at: 28.5 degrees."

And:
Payload: 10,843 kg. to a: Geosynchronous transfer, 27deg inclination trajectory.

About 1/4 of a Saturn 5 ? And half the diameter (5 meters).

BTW, no wonder it lifted off slowly:
Liftoff Thrust: 884,000 kgf. Liftoff Thrust: 8,670.00 kN. Total Mass: 733,400 kg.

this gives ~0.2 G at lift-off.

--
http://www.mat.uc.pt/~rps/

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