Talk:Space vehicle launch preparation

Globalize

The term "launch campaign" is not used in the United States. (I don't know if the referenced NASA document, apparently about Gemini, was supposed to prove that it is, but it is a dead link.) Also, the word "campaign" carries undesirable military connotations, which don't apply to civilian space programs. I'm hard pressed to suggest a clean, simple term that we do use (launch preparation, pre-launch activities), but that's no excuse for usurping the concept with what I assume is a British / European term. (Systemic bias works both ways.) And since this page will become orphaned once I remove its wikilink from its single reference, I think it's of dubious value anyway. JustinTime55 (talk) 22:36, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

I looked up the etymology of campaign: it comes from a French word, which in turn comes from an Italian word, in turn from a late Latin word, all of which refer to the military meaning ("military operation" or "battlefield".) The modern English definition is "a series of activities designed to produce a particular result"; so technically it could be applied to a launch operation; very cute. But in actual practice among (American) English speakers, the other uses of it are applied metaphorically from the military meaning: a political campaign, a lobying campaign, an advertising campaign. The neutral definition omits a key fact: the metaphor is based on the idea of a struggle, against things over which one has no direct control. A politician can't compel people to vote for him, as people can't compel the government to act according to their wishes, and an advertising agency can't compel people to buy their client's product.

In preparing a space vehicle for launch, yes, there are some such factors (e.g. weather, technical failures), but these should be few and accidental; it shouldn't be a "struggle" to get a well-designed, production rocket to launch. When ESA (or whovever) coined the term, they either demonstrated a very superficial understanding of the English language, or else they're admitting they don't know what they're doing. (There are other synonyms they could have chosen that would have made more sense: launch endeavour, for instance.) I can think of two notable "launch struggles" in history: the US Vanguard and the Soviet N1, the latter of which was a complete failure.)

All this is to say that my plan is to move this page to a more global title (Space vehicle launch preparation), (even though it may seem clumsy), keeping the current title as a redirect. Then internally, the article will mention that launch campaign is the term used by ESA, and also will be expanded and globalized by including an American example (the Apollo-Saturn V would be a good one.) JustinTime55 (talk) 15:31, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Space vehicle launch preparation. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070927022900/http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Second_Ariane_5_ECA_Launch_Campaign_Is_Underway_At_The_Spaceport_999.html to http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Second_Ariane_5_ECA_Launch_Campaign_Is_Underway_At_The_Spaceport_999.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 19:12, 25 January 2018 (UTC)