What's This?

[deguspice]

What this?

Comments screened until the desired answer is found. (This should be an easy one)

(Idea borrowed from [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com])


Edit: I got a couple answers, but it's an explanation of the big black thing at the center that I'm looking for.

Comments

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Nope. In fact in a way it's the opposite.

[c1.livejournal.com]

In a way, it's the same, though-- both a Nike site and an airport do feature aeronautical devices, and in both, the expected direction of the 'craft on the ground is up, for various definitions of "up". And depending on the airport, the byproduct of the aircraft going up is "bang", for varying definitions of "byproduct".

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Airports have runways. Nike sites have launch bays.

Airplanes are expected to return to the ground in one piece, and not crash into another object in the air.

[c1.livejournal.com]

So a common expression amongst pilots is "a good landing is one from which the passengers can walk away, while an excellent landing is one after which the aircraft remains flyable." Kinda sets a low bar.

I would argue that the purpose of the flight has little to do with the designation of the launching facility:
Rockets launch from a pad, and land via parachute, requiring rebuilding a large percentage of the vehicle in order to be ready for re-use, unless you're the space shuttle-- in which case you glide to a landing on a runway in similar fashion to a conventional airplane. (Though you'd be right to say that currently, at least, nothing of that ilk lands on a pad.)
The vessel from which kamikaze pilots took off remains an aircraft carrier, yet they had no intentions of making the return trip that most of their comrades made.
And though helicopters do typically rest on a helipad, one often finds helipads at airports.