Expendable Launch Vehicles, or ELV's, are vehicles designed to launch a payload into space.  Historically, payloads have been government and commercial communications satellites, weather satellites, remote observation satellites as well as many other types of unique space craft.

An expendable launch vehicle is made up of one or more rocket stages.  After each stage has burned its compliment of propellant, it is expended (jettisoned from the vehicle) and left to crash back to Earth.

This section provides an overview of the world's fleet of expendable launch vehicles.