ars> "more than three tons of food, fuel, and supplies ..." NASA said This is the first time in my reasonably long life I see "tons" used for something that is

ars> "more than three tons of food, fuel, and supplies ..." NASA said This is the first time in my reasonably long life I see "tons" used for something that is not 1000 kilos. The way it read was "3000+ kgs of payload", not "3000+ pounds" of it. Really quite confusing and worthy of a comment.