Saturn V MLV-25L

Modified Launch Vehicle 25L

Mission Profile

Saturn V MLV-25L (Modified Launch Vehicle 25L) was a proposed growth variant of the Saturn V studied under NASA's Apollo Applications Program in the mid-1960s, designed to achieve significantly higher payload capacity through structural lengthening of the vehicle. Standing approximately 111 meters tall with a 10.1-meter core diameter and three stages, the MLV-25L would have stretched the propellant tanks of the existing S-IC, S-II, and S-IVB stages to increase propellant capacity and thus payload. Like other Saturn V growth studies, the MLV-25L concept was never developed as NASA's budget contracted after Apollo and the agency shifted its focus to the Space Shuttle program.