KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - An Alaska aerospace company wants to increase number of launches to at least two or three launches per year.
Representatives from Alaska Aerospace Corporation spoke about their plans earlier this week at a town hall meeting in Kodiak, The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported (https://bit.ly/2rCBBr4 ).
The advancement of small-launch vehicles provides an opportunity to send more satellites into space, they said.
“The industry is changing, and it’s really been changing in the last five years,” said Barry King, the company’s director of range operations. “And nobody in the small launch vehicle community has been successful yet to get a small, cheap vehicle operating frequently. But we think the Rocket Labs and a couple other customers that we’re talking to are going to be successful over the next year, and then these small guys have a ride they can afford.”
Currently, companies or organizations that need to launch small nano-satellites or cube satellites typically hitch rides with larger payloads, taking up unused space in the launch vehicles at a lower cost.
This method of launching has created a backlog of customers hoping to send satellites into orbit. But the smaller satellites being developed should bring prices down and supply up, King said. The company just needs to attract commercial customers, he said.
There have been 17 launches from the Kodiak launch facility since November 1998. All were government launches, but the company is negotiating with three commercial companies to launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska, King said.
“We still want to have our government customers, but we want a large share of that small satellite, small launch vehicle market to be launched out of here,” he said.
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Information from: Kodiak (Alaska) Daily Mirror, https://www.kodiakdailymirror.com
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