You salute/hit the lights, then they check all the safeties - the bow guy, your troubleshooters, the cat settings and the peanut gallery before touching the deck. Then the button masher looks forward, aft and hits the button.

If it's a bubble shot, the cat safety PO takes your salute, checks the safeties then give a thumbs up to the bubble. In there, the Cat O will check the settings, winds and up/down cycle and hit the button.

Sometimes it's really quick, sometimes you're there for what seems like forever. At night (or weather below 800/5), they will sequence everyone at 1 minute intervals, and sequence you with landing traffic to keep interval in case of a bolter if the recovery is going on at the same time. So you can sit there for a while. Super Hornets have a 30-second in afterburner limit on the jet blast deflector from the heat, but that's about the only hard number other than the sequencing.

Daytime/VFR, they'll launch the bow and waist at the same time, hence the clearing turns to provide some lateral separation. Nothing like launching into parade position on someone else!

HTH
Spongebob