Its a bit of a nonsense calculation anyway. Fundamentally the shuttle's engines had a maximum thrust they could generate, and there's no amount of money that c

Its a bit of a nonsense calculation anyway. Fundamentally the shuttle's engines had a maximum thrust they could generate, and there's no amount of money that could easily change that. That dictates the maximum shuttle + crew + payload weight and it's just a question of how you parcel that out. Include a heavy printer, and you constrain the maximum crew and/or payload. (There was one flight, recently covered on HN - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-93 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-93 - where they flew with fewer crewmembers because the payload was so heavy).