mislaunch

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ launch

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪslɔːntʃ/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈlɔːntʃ/

Noun

mislaunch (plural mislaunches)

1. An attempt to launch something which results in it not following the intended trajectory.
   • 1961, “Project OSCAR Launching”, in CQ: The Radio Amateurs' Journal, volume 17, page 87:

     It will take many static tests before we are ready to go, however I would rather see all the bugs removed on the ground than have a mislaunch.

   • 1970, Space/aeronautics - Volume 53, page 48:

     Despite the expensive July mislaunch which resulted in a $300,000 loss in operating profit, the network boosted that profit to $1.124 million in '69.

   • 1992, Maxine H. Atwater, Washington Revealed, page 203:

     As the guide tells the story of the 1990 mislaunch of the $150-million IS-VI F3, you can almost feel the tension. During that launch from this control center, a mechanical failure in the rocket caused the F3 to spin into space.

2. The act of accidentally launching something.
   • 1988, Arms Control Today, page 27:

     Protection against mislaunch of nuclear weapons via SDI deployment of an ABM system, which is what is proposed to enhance safety from accidents, should neither be treated as a sop to calm the total defense-related spending authority […]

   • 1994, India. Parliament. Rajya Sabha, Parliamentary Debates: Official Report, page 115:

     Computerised count down is introduced to eliminate the possibility of mislaunch.

   • 2003, MR - Issue 1666, page 121:

     By making it possible to minimize the consequences of a mislaunch, the DAL system addresses to some degree the contributing factors of nuclear forces operating at high day-to-day readiness.

   • 2015, Juho Kuorikoski, Finnish Video Games: A History and Catalog, page 278:

     The rear touch pad can occasionally result in mislaunches if your fingers are all over the place, so it's good that the functions can also be mapped to the normal buttons.

3. The failure of a marketing campaign to introduce a new product.
   • 1968, Henry Sturmey, H. Walter Staner, “Those Elusive 3-Litres”, in The Autocar, page 53:

     Let us forget the whole muddled mislaunch and look at this important car as […]

   • 1999, George David Hughes, Daryl O. McKee, Charles H. Singler, Sales Management: A Career Path Approach, page 7:

     According to David Cichelli, Senior Vice President of The Alexander Group, reinvention of the sales organization should occur in a company before margins decline, growth rates are flat or declining, growth is slower than competitors, new product mislaunches occur, there is discount selling, and niche competitors are successful.

Verb

mislaunch (third-person singular simple present mislaunches, present participle mislaunching, simple past and past participle mislaunched)

1. To launch a projectile or vehicle so that it does not follow the correct trajectory.
   • 1970, Anthony Burgess, The Worm and the Ring, page 254:

     The boy's arm aimed, mislaunched, and the dart swam through the air towards the front of the class, landing near Miss Fry.

   • 1985, H. V. Hodson, Annual Register of World Events, page 397:

     In November the shuttle Discovery successfully rescued two satellites which had been mislaunched on earlier missions, Westar, an American communications satellite, and Palapa B, originally intended for the Indonesian government.

   • 1993, U.S. Industrial Outlook, page 28-12:

     The International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), a consortium of 121 countries providing services to about 180 countries, added to its capacity with the spectacular in-orbit rescue and rebbot of the INTELSAT-6, which had been mislaunched to a useless orbit, and the launch of the high-power INTELSAT-K.

   • 1994, Alexander Brozeit, Klaus D. Hinsch, R. S. Sirohi, Selected Papers on Single-mode Optical Fibers, page 202:

     The principle modes are V and H, and the arcs correspond to linear SOPs mislaunched by +38°, +28°, +13°, 0°, -17° and –32°.

2. To accidentally launch something that should not be launched.
3. To fail in the introduction of a product or program.
   • 1985, Bal Cordero Falcone, Christian Economics for the Philippines, page 25:

     For it is the intense suspicion of many that the total cost and worth of all the projects launched and mislaunched by this regime would not approximate even fifty percent of the total internal and external indebtedness running to several billions of dollars for which this dispensation has mortgaged and will continue to mortgage the republic to deeper and deeper ruination.

   • 1994, Diplomat - Volume 5, page 9:

     Having mislaunched the first move to pull down the NWFP coalition the party leadership is now facing the opposition's strong argument that it has always proved impatient with the opposition.