I am confused as to what is meant by 'launch';
Is it the type where we throw bottles of champagne at them until they sidle off into the sea, or the type where a large amount of highly volatile 'liquids' are ignited at their feet and, and with much roaring they ascend to the heavens?
In any event the word 'launch' is typically used to indicate the event that immediately precedes a voyage of some kind.
A different word exists for a load of people sitting around talking - this word may be 'lunch'.
So, hopefully they do mean, as they say, launch - and they are all buggering off to somewhere far away.