ELA-3, is a launch pad and associated facilities at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. ELA-3 was operated by Arianespace as part of the expendable launch system for Ariane 5 launch vehicles. As of July 2023, 117 launches have been carried out from it, the first of which occurred on 4 June 1996. The final launch occurred on 5 July 2023.
ELA-3 before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope
A launch pad is an above-ground facility from which a rocket-powered missile or space vehicle is vertically launched. The term launch pad can be used to describe just the central launch platform, or the entire complex. The entire complex will include a launch mount or launch platform to physically support the vehicle, a service structure with umbilicals, and the infrastructure required to provide propellants, cryogenic fluids, electrical power, communications, telemetry, rocket assembly, payload processing, storage facilities for propellants and gases, equipment, access roads, and drainage.
Launch pad at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B on Merritt Island, Florida
Transport of Soyuz rocket to pad by train
Transport of Space Shuttle and MLP to pad on Crawler-transporter
SLC-40 with SpaceX Falcon 9 launch infrastructure. The four towers surrounding the rocket are lightning arresters, and acts like a giant Faraday cage