Is this a Hellflower or is it a specialized SSTO demiorganic that can go deeper into space?

Why are the catapults in the middle so short, do they just chuck planes overboard into the sea? It doesn’t look like the planes can take off vertically given how long the forward catapult is and that it has a sky ramp too. This looks more fitting as a spaceship design.

This is like Terence McKenna's description of the start of a DMT trip looking more real than reality itself.