Launch pad (rocket)

Launch ramps for rockets are portable or permanently installed structures that hold the rocket in place until shortly before it is launched. Supply lines and measuring cables with which the rocket is connected are sometimes only disconnected immediately after the launch. Launch ramps are to be distinguished from missile silos .

Facilities for unguided and guided missiles

Unguided rockets and rockets guided by simple tail units must be accelerated as quickly as possible, as they need the air flowing around them and the rotation of their own to stabilize their trajectory. Therefore, launch ramps are to be found in which a catapult is built to accelerate the missile. Alternatively, a launch tower can take over the guidance of the rocket.

Instead, launch ramps for guided missiles only have maintenance scaffolding ( supply tower , assembly tower ).

Permanently installed launch ramps (with partly mobile components)

Saturn V with supply tower on a mobile launch table , including the crawler transporter

For larger rockets, launch ramps are permanently installed on a large concrete area. The rocket stands on a table-like construction, the so-called launch table.

This table can also be mobile and is called MLP for Mobile launcher platform ( Mobile Start Table ). Large rockets are already mounted on such a mobile launch table in the Vehicle Assembly Building and then driven from there on the table to the actual launch pad by means of a crawler transporter . For some rockets, such as the giant Saturn V , the supply tower was also transported on the table.

For the launch of liquid rockets , launch ramps must always have a remote-controlled refueling system for safety reasons. To each launch pad has a bunker either executed or housed in an armored vehicle control center , the so-called start control station . It is used to carry out the launch procedure and to monitor the missile's flight. The entirety of the launch pad and the associated facilities is also called the launch complex .

Mobile launch ramps

A mobile rocket launch pad is a vehicle that carries one or more mostly military rockets , aligns them with the target and can launch them directly from the vehicle.

In English there are the terms TEL (transporter erector launcher) and TELAR (transporter erector launcher and radar), the latter also requiring an independent radar system . Examples of this are anti-aircraft missile systems such as the MIM-104 Patriot or 9K330 Tor .

In surface - to-surface missiles , TELs are used for both ballistic missiles and multiple missile launchers .