What's the biggest payload the shuttle has ever carried?

[Pilot7893]

I'm assuming it's Hubble, but is there a bigger one I don't know of?

 

[Deke]

STS-93's Chandra X-Ray Observatory I believe it was.

 

[joeybigO]

Tragically, Now i'm not sure exactly of the payload weight, but the total weight at takeoff of STS-51L was 268,829.6 LBS.

But based on payload weight I am going to look into that.

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm assuming it's Hubble, but is there a bigger one I don't know of?

Well, in the early past, the heaviest was actually the STS-51-L payload, with 48,633 lbm (22,059.6 kg). But it never reached orbit.

The other, I was able to find, was in the first 93 flights STS-6 with 46,662 lbm (21,165.5 kg).

Hubble was only 25,517 lbm at launch (11,574.3 kg) - no wonder, as the Shuttle had to fly to a very high orbit for it.

 

[ryan]

While i was watching STS-124 it said that the Kibo Pressurized module was the largest payload the shuttle has ever taken.

 

[Pilot7893]

While i was watching STS-124 it said that the Kibo Pressurized module was the largest payload the shuttle has ever taken.

i thought it was just the largest ISS payload the shuttle ever carried

 

[Zatnikitelman]

But Kibo was mostly empty space wasn't it? The other payloads were relatively "solid" weren't they? So Kibo could have easily been largest, but not the heaviest.

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

Well, you can really have two winners here can you.

It all depends on what you meant by "bigger" you could say that "bigger" means larger in scale, filling the most of the cargo bay, or maybe weight\mass of the object.

Personally I really don't know all the cargo the Shuttle has taken into orbit, so I can't really say, I'm not much of a history buff. I can hardly remember what I did yesterday... oh look a butterfly! (ADD?)

or is it ADHD now... I forget.

 

[tblaxland]

Heaviest:
Chandra weighed in at 50162 lbs (STS-93).

Largest:
P3/P4 was 45.3' x 16' x 15.6'.

 

[Pilot7893]

I mean taking up the most space in the payload bay

 

[ryan]

If 51L made into into orbit it would of been a good mission they were going to track Haeleys comet, and other sorts of things, shame.