This is one thing the animators messed-up on. They're in space, with artificial gravity wells the only thing keeping them down on the decks. Why they'd have to go through the trouble of
1 - Moving-up the planes on the elevators,
2 - Lining them-up on the [unused steam] catapult lanes, and
3 - "Shooting them off" one by one as if they were at sea
is beyond me. They wouldn't even need to run their engines to take-off. Could even be as easy as getting them top-side, turn off the gravity and off they float on maneuvering thrusters, turning on their engines for impulse boosts around the ship so they can do their CAP.
Then again, they wouldn't have been able to have been drawn with too much "sense" back then. Wouldn't want an accusation of, say, plagiarizing Battle Star Galactica's Viper-style launches, now would they?