Space launch is the earliest part of a flight that reaches space. Space launch involves liftoff, when a rocket or other space launch vehicle leaves the ground at the start of a flight. Liftoff is of two main types: rocket launch, the current conventional method, non-rocket spacelaunch where other forms of propulsion are employed, including airbreathing jet engines or other kinds.
Famous quotes containing the words space and/or launch:
“Oh, my. I’d forgotten how much I hate space travel.”
—George Lucas (b. 1944)
“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)