A California-based aerospace company is planning a launch from Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska (PSCA) on Kodiak Island sometime between March 27 and April 6, as reported by Space News. Alaska Aerospace Corp. which manages the launch facilities in Alaska, confirmed to Space News in an email that a suborbital launch called "P120" is taking place, the first commercial launch ever conducted from the Alaska spaceport.

The U.S. Coast Guard also issued a "Local Notice to Mariners" on March 14, informing mariners of a rocket launch. "A rocket launch is scheduled from the Pacific Spaceport Complex located at Narrow Cape, Kodiak Island, Alaska, sometime between March 26th - April 6th, 2018," says the notice. The document also outlines two "caution areas" for vessels to avoid during the launch, one immediately to the south of PSCA and another several thousand kilometers to the southwest.

The company that owns the rocket has not been disclosed, but Alaska Aerospace did confirm it is based out of California. The PSCA, previously known as the Kodiak Launch Complex, has positioned berms to protect the launch pad and other facilities, and has also placed a glass structure on top of a shipping container to serve as a mission control center, according to the Seattle Times.

Alaska Aerospace has received interest from multiple companies to launch small rockets from Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska, notably Rocket Lab and Vector. However, Rocket Lab launched its first two test flights of the Electron rocket from its own spaceport in New Zealand and is planning to conduct its first operational flight, "It's Business Time," from the same complex. Vector, an Arizona-based aerospace company, is planning to launch its first orbital flight of the small Vector-R launch vehicle from PSCA no earlier than July.

As reported by Space News, it is possible that the upcoming launch at the Kodiak spaceport is from a company called Astra Space with operations in Alameda, California. The company has a 2017 contract with Alaska Aerospace to support four launches from PSCA of its "small liquid fuel commercial launch vehicle," according to the minutes of an Alaska Aerospace board of directors meeting in August last year. The document also states that Astra's launch will be the first liquid fuel rocket launch from PSCA, and that the company's "intent is to launch every month for the long term, which would involve new infrastructure investments and utilization of our facilities."



The minutes from a November 2017 meeting of the Alaska Aerospace board of directors states that, "Astra is moving forward with weekly planning telecoms and have submitted a draft Operations Requirements (OR) for our review. Astra will bring their Launch Operations Control Center (LOCC) to PSCA and will be as independent as possible. They have made a $100K deposit to secure the launch date, possibly February or later." It is possible that the Launch Operations Control Center that Astra is bringing with them is the same glass building reported by the Seattle Times.

The Kodiak spaceport opened in 1989, and Alaska Aerospace has since launched 19 rockets from the northerly launch pad for agencies like NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the Missile Defense Agency. A failed missile test from the site conducted by the U.S. Army in August 2014 caused extensive damage to the launch complex, which was reopened two years later after repairs.

The secretive upcoming launch from the Kodiak spaceport will mark the first commercial launch in its history, and with other spaceflight startups looking to the Alaska launchpad as well, it could mark the beginning of a productive future of rocket launches from Alaska.

Source: Space News

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