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Distance is almost completely irrelevant for comparing launch vehicles.

Also, Falcon 9 has delivered multiple payloads to lunar orbit. Examples are ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 1, SpaceIL's Beresheet, and South Korea's Danuri. In interplanetary space, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test was launched on a Falcon 9.



Beresheet: 1,300 lbs

Danuri: 1,495 lbs

Hakuto-R: 2,200 lbs

DART: 1,340 lbs

Artemis 2: 112,000 lbs

Even by your examples there remains a 10,000% to 5,000% fold scale difference. And SpaceX agrees with this. This difference in scale is why they are working on Starship.




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