At the request of Gov. Sean Parnell, the Legislature approved a $25 million appropriation in 2012 to start work on a $125 million launchpad at the Kodiak rocket range.
"Lockheed Martin will work to secure the additional funding needed to build the launch complex," the backup document submitted to lawmakers by the Department of Military & Veterans Affairs said.
"Construction of this additional launch pad will not only bring business to Alaska, but it will also create high-paying jobs in the future," Parnell said in 2012.
But the additional $100 million did not materialize, as Lockheed Martin failed to line up enough business for its new Athena III rocket, which is larger than the rockets Kodiak has seen in the past.
Now the state-owned Alaska Aerospace Corp. has launched a new plan to use $21 million of the appropriation in a different fashion.
The company is offering the money as an incentive to attract a company that wants to launch bigger rockets.
Craig Campbell, president of the AAC, said that if a contract cannot be secured, the money will be returned to the state treasury.
If a contract is awarded, the company would be responsible for any additional facilities needed to handle larger rockets. Campbell said the change is in keeping with the goal of the original appropriation and no new approval was needed from the governor or the Legislature.
"It may be possible that the existing launchpad could be modified to accommodate both small and medium payloads," he said.
The goal is to launch rockets with payloads of at least 3,300 pounds that can be placed into orbit.
A request for proposals dated Oct. 2 says the $21 million is to be awarded to a single company through a competitive process.
The most important criteria in judging responses will be the total number of launches and the "long term viability" of the agreement, the corporation says.
"The purpose of this program is to provide enhanced capability and flexibility by developing medium class commercial orbital launch services to meet a variety of mission/payload requirements from KLC," it says.
Proposals are due Nov. 25.
The 16-page document describing the effort says it is "competition sensitive and proprietary and should not be released to unauthorized parties."
Responses are to include, among other things, "A summary of the benefits of your proposal to the State of Alaska and why your selection deserves investment by Alaska taxpayers."
Launch pad plans
The $25 million appropriation to begin building a new launchpad came about after Lockheed Martin agreed that it would use the Kodiak complex for future launches of its Athena III rocket.
According to the June minutes of an AAC board meeting, "Lockheed Martin has been very aggressive with us to build Launch Pad 3 for the Athena III rocket, but they have been unable to sell the Athena sufficiently to the level needed for the commercial market, therefore we have no ability to build Launch Pad 3."
The minutes also expressed concern that legislators and the governor might want to use the $25 million elsewhere.
"We continue to ask the governor's office and legislators 'do not pull money, here is an active customer that is working hard to get their commercial operations going and we need to be ready to build," the minutes said. "We are staying in a flow path toward Launch Pad 3."
In late August, a rocket launch had to be aborted four seconds after takeoff. As the rocket range makes plans for the future, the cause of the failure remains under investigation and damage estimates by engineers and insurance adjusters have yet to be completed.
There are no additional launches on the Kodiak schedule at the moment, but the state company hopes that will change. It is likely that specific rebuilding plans will be aligned with the needs of future launch customers.
The corporation held a "Medium Lift Industry Day" on Sept. 24 with participation from Lockheed Martin, Orbital Sciences Corp., Spaceflight Services and several other companies.
Materials presented at the session said that the small payloads and suborbital rockets launched from Kodiak in the past do not have enough future potential, while the demand for larger rockets is expected to grow over the next decade.
The Federal Aviation Administration released a draft environmental assessment on the future of medium-lift rockets from Kodiak in September.
Incentive project
The first public disclosure of the new $21 million incentive project and the RFP came Friday on the website Space News.
It said, "Alaska Aerospace decided to instead offer the funds as an incentive to companies that would commit to providing medium-lift launch services from Kodiak, as the state did not require that the $25 million be used explicitly for constructing a launch facility."
The website said that concerns the Legislature would withdraw the money were a factor in the timing, with a goal of awarding a contract before the end of the year.
"We needed to add some urgency to the process," Matt Steele, an AAC vice president, told Space News.
Space News said the two top contenders are Lockheed Martin and Orbital Sciences Corp.