By ALEX GIMARC
July 29, 2026 –Alaska Aerospace has been in operation since 1991, 35 years. It was established by the State of Alaska to develop an in-state aerospace industry. This ended up being creation of a small launch complex at Narror Cape on Kodiak. Today, there are two pads, with a third in discussion. To date, there have been 34 launches out of Kodiak, 9 of them orbital, 25 suborbital.
Historically, Alaska Aerospace has catered to Department of Defense launches, with few civil space launches. Most of the DoD activity has been associated with Ballistic Missile Defense, flying military payloads and interceptor test targets. Israeli Defense Force successfully tested their Arrow 3 ballistic missile interceptor with flights out of Kodiak in 2019.
Monday, Rocket Lab, a commercial launch company originally founded in New Zealand 2006, moving to Long Beach, CA in 2020, announced a $266 million contract with Space Force for 12 suborbital launches out of Kodiak starting late 2026. There is an option for another 6. Rocket Lab adds Kodiak to two other existing launch complexes in New Zealand and Wallops Island, VA they currently fly out of.
How is Alaska Aerospace doing? Depends on your view of the glass as half full or half empty. On the half full side, they have managed to carve out for themselves a nice little niche as a defense-oriented service provider, one that just landed a quarter billion-dollar contract for up to 18 launches out of Alaska.
On the half empty side, there have been nearly 200 new launch companies started since 2000, at least 12 of them here in the US. The biggest of these, SpaceX was founded in 2002. Why aren’t any of these guys flying out of Kodiak?
My guess is world view. Alaska Aerospace was founded by military space guys. At that time, ballistic missile defense was the largest thing going. The military space budget was similar in size to that of civil space (NASA) and expected to grow. They started out with a military focus that has endured during the years.
Meanwhile, commercial space like the wildly successful SpaceX has launched the partly reusable Falcon 9 successfully over 600 times since 2010. Their completely reusable heavy lifter, Starship, is on its third iteration, completing its mostly successful 13th test flight last Friday. As an aside, if you watch coverage of SpaceX flights, you will be impressed by the number of 30-somethings making their dream a reality.
The commercial future in space is only going to grow, that is at least until the next democrat administration figures out how to regulate it into oblivion. SpaceX is doing enough business in space with Starlink to fund development of its Starship heavy lift booster. Musk is talking about an orbital datacenter array of up to a million satellites. Doing so will create the demand for doing and supporting things in space that will rival the current budgets of MilSpace (DoD, Space Force) and civil space (NASA) combined.
Alaska needs to figure out how to play in all three worlds rather than a single one.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
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5 thoughts on “Rocket Lab comes to Pacific Spaceport Complex, Kodiak”
As a Rocket Lab shareholder shortly after the IPO I greatly appreciate that they are doing launches in Alaska, hopefully they don’t go the way of Astra, who also launched out off Kodiak and never found the success that Rocket Lab has.
Missiles on Kodiak. The Right to Arm Bears
Alaskans (as dysfunctional as we are) just need to first admit it, take one step forward each day moving forward no matter how uncomfortable moving right feels.
Then Alaska could be just as advance as Isreal where instead of Alaska being a dependent child on the other states to provide for us, we provide for them. Them borrowing money from Alaska instead of us sending our US Senators and Congressman to DC to work through committees the money Alaskans are used to receiving from other states leaders more healthier and smarter.
The biggest step for Alaskans to take, you have to stop drinking Alcohol. The drunkeness kills brain cells. So you stay more stupid and Slow. Not only that but also stunts the healthy development of children (the next generation) growing up around a parent constantly or routinely drunk. So just like the parent the child likely doesn’t do any better than the parent maintaining Alaska’s poverty.
> Then Alaska could be just as advance as Isreal
Wow. That’s a hard pass.
We may be really messed up as a culture and society, but we are not that far gone.
As far as the launches, they are OK. They provide employment. I don’t like when they grasp for more land or restrictions around Surfers and Fossil Beach or the Burton’s Ranch. Neither does the community. They ought to manage that relationship better.