Definition of LAUNCH VEHICLE

Examples of launch vehicle in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Taken together with the burgeoning market for small launch vehicles, Branson may soon be rolling in cosmic cash. — Daniel Oberhaus, WIRED, "Virgin Orbit Just Dropped a Rocket From a Boeing 747," 10 July 2019 Elvis points to private rocket companies, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, that are driving down the cost of launching vehicles into orbit. — Adam Mann, Scientific American, "The New Scramble for the Moon," 26 June 2019 Its launch vehicle, the company's New Glenn rocket, is slated for its first flights in 2021. — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, "Here's who's aiming to land on the moon within the next decade," 9 May 2019 Meanwhile, firms such as investment giant BlackRock Inc., BLK -1.29% which doesn’t have a significant private-equity business, have eschewed the traditional fund structure altogether in launching vehicles that can hold assets indefinitely. — Miriam Gottfried, WSJ, "Private-Equity Firms Create Funds That Are Built to Last," 1 Jan. 2019 Chinese space-launch startup Linkspace appears close to testing a tech-demonstrator reusable rocket similar in utility to the Grasshopper rocket SpaceX used in its development of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Rocket Report: Scotland’s NIMBY problem, SpaceX test firing, Soyuz mishap," 2 Nov. 2018 Time will tell whether such a rocket can be cost-competitive with the myriad small-satellite launch vehicles now coming online. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Rocket Report: Rokot ending, more spaceports, back-to-back Falcon Heavies," 21 Dec. 2018 After Allen’s death in October 2018, Stratolaunch dropped plans to develop its own type of rocket engine and a family of launch vehicles, focusing instead on getting the giant plane airborne and launching Northrop Grumman’s proven Pegasus XL. — John Antczak, The Seattle Times, "Giant Stratolaunch aircraft lifts off from California," 13 Apr. 2019 License plate numbers and other details were recorded and matched up with vehicles later spotted in eastern Ukraine, proving the convoy had taken Buk missile launch vehicles there. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Investigation: Russian Missile Brought Down MH17," 24 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'launch vehicle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.