It&#x27;s somewhat higher, but not dramatically so. Skylon is projected to be 325 tons loaded with a LEO payload of 15 tons, Falcon 9 Full Thrust a.k.a. Falcon 9 1.2 is 541 tons loaded with a LEO payload of 13-17 tons depending on who you believe. And that&#x27;s comparing paper hardware with flying hardware. Spacecraft tend to get heavier as they go from paper to reality.<p>Plus, payload fraction is another thing like SSTO, horizontal takeoff, novel heat shields, and all the rest that are cool but just don&#x27;t matter except for how they affect the end result. All that matters in the end is how much you can launch, and how much it costs.