A rocket launch is the takeoff phase of the flight of a rocket. Launches for orbital spaceflights, or launches into interplanetary space, are usually from a fixed location on the ground, but may also be from a floating platform such as the San Marco platform, or the Sea Launch launch vessel.
Launches of suborbital flights (including missile launches), can also be from:
- a missile silo
- a mobile launcher vehicle
- a submarine
- air launch:
- from a plane (e.g. Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, Pegasus Rocket, X-15)
- from a balloon (Rockoon, da Vinci Project (under development))
- a surface ship (Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System)
- an inclined rail (e.g. rocket sled launch)
Launches not into space can also be from:
- the shoulder
A skyrocket is launched from some stand.
"Rocket launch technologies" generally refers to the entire set of systems needed to successfully launch a vehicle, not just the vehicle itself, but also the firing control systems, ground control station, launch pad, and tracking stations needed for a successful launch and/or recovery.
Read more about Rocket Launch: Commercial Launches, Launch Vehicles, Orbital Launches
Famous quotes containing the words rocket and/or launch:
“A rocket is an experiment; a star is an observation.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)
“I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made ... and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)