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)

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