Launch vehicle
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A launch vehicle(LV) is a rocket designed for lifting payloads from the surface of a celestial body into an orbit. Launch vehicles are usually propelled by rocket engines and lift off from special structures, called launch complexes. Different to the similar sounding rockets, a launch vehicle has capability to lift its payload in a stable orbit, or at least very close to a stable orbit, while sounding rockets are limited to suborbital trajectories.
All launch vehicles today make use of staging and are usually not reusable.
See also