In order to enhance the safety of the catapult launch of the carrier-based aircraft,the catapult launch multi-body dynamic model is established aiming at the problem of off-center catapult launch. The whole catapult process including four stages which are buffering,tensioning,releasing and taxiing is taken into consideration and the body dynamics of the off-center catapult during each stage is analyzed. The catapult launch dynamic differences between the conditions only considering taxiing and that considering four stages are compared,and the effects of the different initial off-center distances considering four stages on the attitude,landing gear load and acceleration of the carrier-based aircraft during catapult launch are discussed. The results show that only considering taxiing may underestimate the dynamics of the carrier-based aircraft substantially. When taking four stages into consideration,the initial off-center distance has small influence on the aircraft dynamic characteristics during buffering and tensioning but has larger influence on that during releasing and taxiing. The increase of the off-center distance will cause the enhancement of the aircraft rolling and yawing,which may lead to the load difference between the left and right landing gears and the increase of the aircraft lateral acceleration. The establishment and simulation of the catapult launch multi-body dynamic model founded on buffering,tensioning,releasing and taxiing provide reference for the carrier-based aircraft design and analysis of the catapult launch dynamics.