A fully assembled shuttle is 184 feet tall and weighs 4,500,000 pounds. The bay is 15 feet in diameter and 60 feet long; large enough to fit a school bus or 50,000 pounds of payload. The shuttle's velocity on orbit is about 17,500 mph.

How much does a space shuttle weigh?

The Space Shuttle weighed 165,000 pounds empty. Its external tank weighed 78,100 pounds empty and its two solid rocket boosters weighed 185,000 pounds empty each. Each solid rocket booster held 1.1 million pounds of fuel. The external tank held 143,000 gallons of liquid oxygen (1,359,000 pounds) and 383,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen (226,000 pounds). The fuel weighed almost 20 times more than the Shuttle. At launch, the Shuttle, external tank, solid rocket boosters and all the fuel combined had a total weight of 4.4 million pounds. The Shuttle could also carry a 65,000 payload.
<img alt="Uu-web-banner" src="https://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/assets/uu-web-banner-86ecb85b131498c79a2ede7ee54e3430.png" width="365" height="46"><img alt="Large" src="https://universeunplugged.ipac.caltech.edu/inline/MediaFile/27/binary/large" width="365" height="192">

How much did the Space Shuttle weigh? | Cool Cosmos

technologyandthefuture

Technology & The Future

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

space

Space

The Space Shuttle weighed 165,000 pounds empty. Its external tank weighed 78,100 pounds empty and its two solid rocket boosters weighed 185,000 pounds empty each. Each solid rocket booster held 1.1 million pounds of fuel. The external tank held 143,000 gallons of liquid oxygen (1,359,000 pounds) and 383,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen (226,000 pounds). The fuel weighed almost 20 times more than the Shuttle. At launch, the Shuttle, external tank, solid rocket boosters and all the fuel combined had a total weight of 4.4 million pounds. The Shuttle could also carry a 65,000 payload.

Ask an Astronomer

How much does a space shuttle weigh?

CURATED BY

Related collections

More like this