Crossword clues for launch pad
Wiktionary
alt. The surface or structure from which a launch is made. n. The surface or structure from which a launch is made.
WordNet
n. a platform from which rockets or space craft are launched [syn: launching pad, launchpad, launch area, pad]
Wikipedia
A launch pad is an above-ground platform from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. A spaceport (or launch complex) is a facility which includes, and provides required support for, one or more launch pads. A launch pad generally contains a fixed or mobile service structure, which provides one or more access platforms to inspect and maintain the vehicle, and an umbilical structure which provides the vehicle with propellants, cryogenic fluids, electrical power, communications, and telemetry prior to launch. The service structure also provides access to the crew cabin for vehicles carrying humans. The pad may contain a flame deflection structure to prevent the intense heat of the rocket exhaust from damaging the vehicle or pad structures, and a sound suppression system spraying large quantities of water may be employed. The pad may also be protected by lightning arrestors.
A launch pad is distinct from a missile launch facility (or missile silo), which also launches a missile vertically but is located underground in order to help harden it against enemy attack, or conceal it from surveillance.
Cryogenic propellants ( liquid oxygen oxidizer, and liquid hydrogen fuel) need to be continuously topped off (i.e., boil-off replaced) during the launch sequence ( countdown), as the vehicle awaits liftoff. This becomes particularly important as complex sequences may be interrupted by planned or unplanned holds to fix problems.
Most rockets need stable support for a few seconds after ignition while the engines build up to stable, full thrust. Therefore, the vehicle is commonly held on the pad by hold-down arms or explosive bolts, which are triggered when the vehicle is stable and ready to fly, at which point all umbilical connections with the pad are released.
A launch pad is an above-ground platform from which rocket- missiles or space launch vehicles take off vertically. Launch pad may also refer to the following:
Launch Pad was an alternative to the Macintosh desktop developed by Berkeley Systems in late 1994. It provided a simple environment for users to help them to work without supervision. Launch Pad sits on top of the Finder desktop, providing a simple area oriented graphical user interface in which applications and documents are represented by icons and large buttons. Aside from its security features, its interface and basic functionality was very similar to KidDesk.
Launch Pad is a family strategy card game for 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up. It was designed by Melanie James and published by Stratus Games.
In the game, players construct various types of rockets and ready them for launch by advancing them through 3 phases of production ( construction, quality control, and launch preparation). Each rocket requires a certain amount of metal and fuel in order to be considered complete. An expert with the necessary skill set is required in order to advance a completed rocket to the next phase. Rockets can also be manned with astronauts and oxygen, be stamped with a quality certificate, and be placed under maximum security in order to be worth additional points or be protected from action cards that could affect them.
The launch pad, consisting of four game cards, serves as a variable game clock to determine the end of the game. The cards constituting the launch pad advance into the center of the table; when all four cards have advanced, forming a completed launch pad, there is one final round of play and the game ends.
At the end of the game, players score points based on the rockets they have built. The player with the highest point total wins.
Usage examples of "launch pad".
And when he reported to the launch pad at Canaveral and saw the sleek, powerful rocket with the rather small spacecraft perched atop, he wondered at the skill of his associates in building a device which could transmit photographs over a vast distance.
Not until recently, when I was busy lining up microwave dishes aimed at Conquistador's launch pad, did he begin to suspect something.
Passing the launch pad, she saw the gantry inching back on its railroad tracks, ready for take-off.
A soldier shuts the door behind him, and a moment later the vehicle rises from the ground, turns away from the camera, and skims down the road leading to the launch pad.
Just to reach Muroroa, in fact, Roberta had needed to teleport to another island, several miles south of this one, then brave the treacherous currents and coral reefs in an outrigger canoe until she came close enough to the forbidden atoll to jump overboard and scuba-dive the rest of the way, dodging sharks, moray eels, and poisonous jellyfish as she swam to shore not far from the rocket launch pad.
Frank Turtle, the strange little guy from the bowels of NASA who had done so much to return humans to the Moon, had lost his life when one of those big old Energia clones had dropped back to the launch pad on Sri Lanka and blown apart, taking half the island with it.
The Chinese have one on the launch pad but they won't be ready for launch for at least another seven hours or so.
After the high-eighties scorch of the launch pad outside the RSS, it was a welcome chill.
Narrow Leg said as he pointed out features of the slender ship on the launch pad.
Another F-1M rocket booster was sitting on a launch pad of the Baikonur Kosmodrome Complex.
The weight of the rocket on the launch pad had been 260,000 pounds, most of it oxidizer and fuel, the liquid oxygen and RP-1 fuel.
Keene did a quick mental calculation, then added several hours for storming a launch pad, taking up a shuttle that had been readied in hope of arriving emigrants, making orbit, and maneuvering into position.
White smoke burst around the launch pad and the rumble from the engines rattled glass twelve miles away.
One wall of Gavin's office was covered with framed photographs: a Saturn V rocket spotlighted at night on its mobile launch pad, the Peregrine command module with the bright limb of the moon beneath it, a group portrait of the crew in their spacesuits, a shot of the LM Discovery beginning its descent, and an autographed picture of Richard Nixon shaking Tom's hand in a Rose Garden ceremony.