A mobile launcher platform (MLP), also known as mobile launch platform, is a structure used to support a large multistage space vehicle which is assembled (stacked) vertically in an integration facility and then transported by a crawler-transporter (CT) to a launch pad. This becomes the support structure for launch.
The Mobile Launcher Platform-1 on top of a crawler-transporter
The Mobile Launchers used for Saturn V
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is carried atop the MLP-1 in the lead-up to STS-79
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is carried atop the MLP-2 in the lead-up to STS-117
A multistage rocket or step rocket is a launch vehicle that uses two or more rocket stages, each of which contains its own engines and propellant. A tandem or serial stage is mounted on top of another stage; a parallel stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively two or more rockets stacked on top of or attached next to each other. Two-stage rockets are quite common, but rockets with as many as five separate stages have been successfully launched.
Each stage of the Black Brant 12 sounding rocket has its own set of tail fins.
The second stage of a Minuteman III rocket
Cutaway drawings showing three multi-stage rockets
Apollo 11 Saturn V first-stage separation