grooble: "Have you ever seen the launch platforms on aircraft carriers that catapult the jet? There needs to be a spacecraft version."<br /><br />grooble,<br /><br />Firstly, YES!, i have seen the launch platforms on aircraft carriers that catapult the jets! As i was in U.S. NAVAL Aviation, and was able to be up close and personal with this technology, and operations.<br /><br />Secondly, your comment that there needs to be a spacecraft version, needs to be a little more specific!<br /><br />Do you mean, as actually in Orbit or in Space that a Larger Mother Ship would launch Smaller Ships in this manner?<br /><br />If So! This would have problems in reality, in a Zero Gravity or Micro Gravity Environment. Any catapult system on a Larger Mother Ship would create a recoil in the amount of the force of the ejected mass, Smaller Ship, which would push the bigger ship in the opposite direction, and would thus require thrust (ie:fuel) to counter this, and therefore would make such a catapult system on an Orbital or Space Based Facility or Ship, impractical and creating more problems than solving, and nothing would be gained or saved from this approach in the end! When large Facilities and Ships are built in the coming days, in Earth Orbit and in Space, any smaller craft or ships that are launched, would do so under their own power, and separate from the larger launch platform, whether that is a Station or Ship!<br /><br />If you mean a Catapult Like System in a Gravity Well, like on a Planet, Moon, or Very Large Body in Space (ie:I say very Large Body as a Smaller Body even a small asteroid would be effected by launch recoil forces, and such an approach has even been suggested as a thrust component to move small asteroids, but this is another thread altogether!) this would work, and would have many benefits to Launch System Capabilities and Launch Vehicle Fuel & Structure Mass at launch. I am sure you, or at least some of your buddies in school, have used a rubber band stre