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If the space shuttle’s external fuel tank were placed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, it would stand just taller than Lady Liberty’s torch. At launch, the mass of the space shuttle is about 2,040 metric tons (4.5 million pounds), but it can deliver only 6.5 percent of that mass to low-Earth orbit, and that costs $20,000 per kilogram ($9,100 per pound). For comparison, in 2001, gold sold for about $9,000 per kilogram. To achieve a stable low-Earth orbit, the payload must simultaneously be lifted about 300 kilometers above Earth’s surface and accelerated to a horizontal speed of nearly 8 kilometers per second (about Mach 23, or twenty-three times the speed of sound).