High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth`s surface into outer space. A launch system includes the launch vehicle, the launch pad and other infrastructure. Usually the payload is an artificial satellite placed into orbit, but some spaceflights are sub-orbital while others enable spacecraft to escape Earth orbit entirely. A launch vehicle which carries its payload on a suborbital trajectory is often called a sounding rocket.