Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle

Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle, or simply Shuttle-Derived Vehicle (SDV), is a term describing one of a wide array of concepts that have been developed for creating space launch vehicles from the components, technology and infrastructure of the Space Shuttle program. SDVs have also been part of NASA's plans several times in the past. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, NASA formally studied a cargo-only vehicle, Shuttle-C, that would have supplemented the crewed Space Shuttle in orbiting payloads.