The Saturn V-ELV (Earth Launch Vehicle) was to be an enlarged Saturn V with the addition of four UA1207 solid rocket boosters derived from the Titan IV launch vehicle and liquid propellant stages derived from the conceptual Saturn MLV-V-4(S)-A* and MLV-V-1A. Had it been built it would have been able to put a 200,000 kg payload into low Earth orbit or a 67,000 kg payload into a translunar trajectory. The ELV was intended to serve as part of a crewed NASA mission to Mars, though that idea eventually fell out of favor largely due to political and financial concerns. A Mars mission would have used a total of 10 ELV's - 6 for the space vehicle and 4 for the logistics vehicles. In addition to Mars, the ELV was intended to serve as a platform for unmanned exploratory missions to Venus. At the time, it appears ELV was also a generic catch-all term for any large crewed rocket. There are references to both the Saturn I and Saturn V as an ELV.

Plans for ELV Usage

According to the 1968 NASA document "Integrated Manned Interplanetary Spacecraft Concept Definition", there was a planned schedule for exploration under the ELV program. After the first crewed Apollo lunar landing, NASA was hoping to progress through the following list:

Vehicle Layout