As it maps a recovery plan following a failed launch in late August from its rocket range in Kodiak, the Alaska Aerospace Corp.continues to study expansion plans to accommodate rockets capable of carrying payloads nearly three times larger than those in the past.
The Federal Aviation Administration released a draft environmental assessment Sept. 12 on a proposed new launchpad designed for solid- or liquid-fueled rockets with payloads of up to 10,000 pounds. The existing launch complex, which has had 17 launches since 1998, is licensed for solid-fuel rockets with payloads of up to 4,000 pounds.
But the release of the report doesn't mean the pad will be built or that the state-owned corporation will expand the range to accommodate 12-foot-wide rockets as tall as a 24-story building.
That's because funding remains uncertain. At the request of Gov. Sean Parnell, the Legislature appropriated $25 million in 2012, about one-fifth of the total cost, to expand the site to handle Athena III rockets from Lockheed Martin. The Athena III had not yet flown at the time of the draft assessment's publication.
"The company and the state's Alaska Aerospace are pursuing an additional $100 million of financing for the new launch project," said a press release from the governor in March 2012. "The state capital funding would allow the project to move into the detailed engineering phase with construction anticipated to begin in summer 2012. The first Athena III launch from Kodiak is targeted for late 2014."
While Lockheed Martin did not secure launch contracts, postponing the plan, the environmental assessment went forward. As part of the process, the FAA would have to modify the license for the range to permit the larger rockets.
The proposed expansion would include a launchpad, rocket processing facility, rocket staging facility, liquid-fuel facility and a mission control center for a launch team of about 200 people.
"The proposed action would be consistent with the objectives of the Commercial Space Launch Act," the assessment found. It said the state request is "based on potential business ventures" that are looking at the Kodiak launch option.
"Currently, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, is the only launch site in the United States that can launch medium-lift launch vehicles into polar, sun, synchronous and highly elliptical orbits," it said. Expanding the Kodiak site would provide an option and "may keep space launch missions from going overseas."
The assessment includes potential impacts of up to nine launches a year, but the range has struggled to find any customers and has none on the calendar.
The FAA will hold an open-house public meeting Oct. 7 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Kodiak Inn Best Western. Comments on the assessment are due by Oct. 15.
The Kodiak complex, recently renamed the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska, was built with about $150 million in federal funds and $40 million in state funds. The government agencies that have used it had paid more than $141 million in fees for launches.
"Launch Pad 3 is the essential keystone component in AAC's future growth into a medium-lift launch site, becoming a national space asset in the process," Pat Gamble, the corporation board chairman and president of the University of Alaska system, wrote in the 2012 annual report.