With the astronounts in space adding the new building to internatioal space station?

Question

how the Hell does a rocket carry up to space 17 tons of material to build a new addition to the space station? Plus when the rocket carries a satellite how big are they and how are they flown up to space as well?

Answer 1

The shuttle is a REALLY BIG ROCKET!

It weighs about 4.5 million pounds fueled up, loaded, and ready to launch. When it lands, it's down to a slim 230,000 pounds, having lost its solid rocket boosters, external fuel tank, and often large payload components into orbit.

It carries a payload of up to 63,500 pounds. (17 tons is a measly 34,000... it can do that almost twice!). The initial design specifications when the shuttle was on the drawing boards were substantially less than this, but in order to win support for this program, the payload spec was increased in order to satisfy the military!

Satellites are of a variety of sizes and configurations. One of my personal favorites, the Hubble Space Telescope weighs in at about 24.5 thousand pounds. It is 43.5 feet long. That makes it about the size and weight of a school bus (the shorter kind, with a front end that looks like a truck - not the kind that looks like just a yellow city bus).

The shuttle has a massive cargo bay. This is most of the volume of the orbiter. The orbiter itself is 122 feet long, the cargo bay is 60 feet long and 15 feet in diameter.

Many satellites are spin stabilized. When they are launched from the orbiter's cargo bay, they are released already in a spinning motion. Orbital corrections can be input over time by ground based personel, using remotely operated onboard thrusters.