Expendable Launch System

An expendable launch system is a launch system that uses an expendable launch vehicle (ELV) to carry a payload into space. The vehicles used in expendable launch systems are designed to be used only once (i.e. they are "expended" during a single flight), and their components are not recovered for re-use after launch. The vehicle typically consists of several rocket stages, discarded one by one as the vehicle gains altitude and speed.

Read more about Expendable Launch System:  Design Rationale, History

Famous quotes containing the words expendable, launch and/or system:

    Statistics justify and scholars seize
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    To savages, expendable as Jews?
    Derek Walcott (b. 1930)

    Now launch the small ship, now as the body dies
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    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    It is not easy to construct by mere scientific synthesis a foolproof system which will lead our children in a desired direction and avoid an undesirable one. Obviously, good can come only from a continuing interplay between that which we, as students, are gradually learning and that which we believe in, as people.
    Erik H. Erikson (20th century)