re: #86 Nojay UK

There wasn’t anything in the launch catalogue with the Shuttle’s capabilities while it was operational and there still isn’t today since no-one wants to pay for it.

The Shuttle carried seven crewmembers for up to 14 days in orbit plus 20 tonnes of cargo in a flexible cargo bay plus enough manoeuvering fuel to reach the Hubble orbit, an airlock permitting multiple EVA operations each flight, the Canada Arm, a toilet, all gone now the Shuttle has retired. Dragon and Soyuz are spam-in-a-can systems only capable of going round and round in orbit and reaching the ISS (which was built mainly using the Shuttle to lift components and crew and support EVA construction operations).

I remember looking it up once; I think the only thing with the raw lifting capability of the Shuttle that’s currently in operation is the Delta IV Heavy (and the upcoming Falcon 9), and neither of those can do what the Shuttle did.