Learn Russian: Директор планирует запуск и отгрузку к полудню. - The director is planning the launch and shipment by noon.

The preposition к followed by a time word in the Dative case is used to express a deadline, meaning "by" or "no later than" that time. Here, the noun полдень (noon) is in the Dative case (полудню), showing the exact deadline for the launch and shipment.

How exactly do we get the form полудню from the dictionary word полдень?

Two things happen here! First, the prefix пол- (half) changes to полу- in most cases other than Nominative and Accusative. Second, the root день (day) has a "fleeting vowel," meaning the е drops out when adding case endings. So, in the Dative case, день becomes дню. Put them together, and you get полудню.

Both запуск and отгрузку are things being planned. Why does only отгрузку get a new case ending?

Both words are direct objects of the verb планирует, meaning they both need to be in the Accusative case. Запуск is a masculine inanimate noun, and for those, the Accusative form is identical to the Nominative dictionary form. However, отгрузка is a feminine noun ending in -а, which changes to -у in the Accusative case.

The verb is планировать, so why doesn't it conjugate as "планировает"?