launch pad

1. The base or platform from which a rocket or space vehicle is launched.

2. A foundation or starting point.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

launch pad

or launching pad

1. (Astronautics) a platform from which a spacecraft, rocket, etc, is launched

2. an effective starting point for a career, enterprise, or campaign

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

launch′

(or launch′ing) pad` or launch′pad`,

1. the platform on which a rocket, missile, etc., is launched.

2. something that serves to launch or initiate.

[1955–60]

launch pad

A concrete or other hard surface area on which a missile launcher is positioned.

Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. US Department of Defense 2005.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

launch pad - a platform from which rockets or space craft are launched

launch area, launching pad, launchpad, pad

platform - a raised horizontal surface; "the speaker mounted the platform"

launching site - a place for launching pads

Translations

Abschussrampe

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

We await the Aaegreen light' from our launch partners RocketLab to dispatch to Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand for flight preparation and integration onto the launch vehicle."

Kleos Space completes acceptance reviews for satellites

The launch complex was originally built in the 1960s, John Muratore, director of the launch complex for SpaceX, told reporters during a conference call Friday.

Elon Musk's SpaceX doubles down on method for cheaper launches

The launch complex is about 25 miles from the city of Kodiak.

Rocket with Army weapon explodes after Alaska launch

Launched from the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska and carried into space by a Minotaur IV launch vehicle from Orbital Sciences, the Tacsat-4 now sits in a highly elliptical orbit at almost 12,000 km above the earth and is controlled by the US Naval Research Laboratory Satellite Operations Center in Maryland.

Minotaurs in space

He must survey each of the Cape's 16,000 acres before a construction project must be stopped because excavators have found a pre-historic migratory camp, a 150-year-old unmarked grave or part of a 50-year-old launch complex buried by vegetation.

Saving the past from the future

Iranian Minister of Information and Communication Technology announced that research work has been started for the establishment of Iran's second space launch complex.

Iran Plans Second Space Launch Complex

What Penson does cover in depth is the launch complex including the Launch Control Center, the silo, all of the equipment that was above ground (topside), the equipment and structures tying the complex together, and the construction of these hardened launch complexes.

The Titan II Handbook: A Civilian's Guide to the Most Powerful ICBM America Ever Built

Representatives from the Army and NASA joined community representatives at the Launch Complex-32 site, where the Orion Abort Flight Test Launch Complex will be built.

WSMR gets new spacecraft pad

The Reagan Test Site also serves as a space launch complex, as a tracking station for manned space flight and NASA research projects.

U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command: fiber optics offers new capability at Reagan Test Site

and the Kodiak Launch Complex. This includes a variety of fields, such as mathematics, physics, engineering, business or a technical science field.

Three, two, one ... blast off! Alaska's aerospace industry is under way