Abort modes

The pre-planned ways a crewed launch can go wrong and still end with everyone alive.

A crewed rocket carries a rehearsed answer for a failure at every point in the ascent, because there is no time to improvise at two kilometres a second. Early on, the escape system pulls the capsule clear and it comes down offshore. Later, the vehicle can shut down and glide the crew to a downrange landing site, or press on to a lower orbit than intended. The boundaries between modes are computed in advance and called out during the ascent, which is what launch commentary is doing when it names them.