The DARPA Launch Challenge is nearing its end with modified rules and only one of three finalists left standing to win $12 million in prize money.
Astra Space will attempt to conduct two launches within days of each other from the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Kodiak Island. The launches will take place from different pads at the spaceport and place satellites into different sun-synchronous trajectories.
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ANCHORAGE, AK, February 21, 2019 (Alaska Aerospace PR) — Alaska Aerospace released the 2018 Annual Report, titled “Rockets and Roll’n,” commemorating twenty years of space launch from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) at Narrow Cape, Kodiak. From the first launch in 1998, Alaska Aerospace has completed nineteen government operations, but in in 2018 the first two launches of small commercial launch vehicles were conducted at PSCA.
“This marked a significant moment for Alaska Aerospace, as the company diversified our customer base and entered a new era of space launch activities providing tremendous opportunities for further growth at our spaceport,” stated Mark Lester, Alaska Aerospace President.
SpaceShipTwo fires its hybrid engine. (Credit: Kenneth Brown)
Part 2 of 2
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
There were 15 flight tests of eight suborbital boosters in 2018, including six flights of two vehicles — Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin’s New Shepard — that are designed to carry passengers on space tourism rides.
The race to provide launch services to the booming small satellite industry also resulted in nine flight tests of six more conventional boosters to test technologies for orbital systems. Two of the boosters tested are designed to serve the suborbital market as well.
A pair of Chinese startups took advantage of a loosening of government restrictions on launch providers to fly their rockets two times apiece. There was also suborbital flight tests of American, Japanese and South Korean rockets.
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo’s first flight above 50 miles on Dec. 13, 2018. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)
Part 1 of 2
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Throughout the Space Age, suborbital flight has been the least exciting segment of the launch market. Operating in the shadow of their much larger orbital cousins, sounding rockets carrying scientific instruments, microgravity experiments and technology demonstrations have flown to the fringes of space with little fanfare or media attention.
The suborbital sector has become much more dynamic in recent years now that billionaires have started spending money in it. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic both made significant progress last year in testing New Shepard and SpaceShipTwo, respectively. Their achievements have raised the real possibility of suborbital space tourism flights in 2019. (I know. Promises, promises…. But, this year they might finally really do it. I think.)
DARPA Launch Challenge candidate sites (Credit: DARPA)
ARLINGTON, Va. (NASA PR) — DARPA has narrowed the potential launch locations for the DARPA Launch Challenge to eight, with options for both vertical and horizontal launch. The challenge will culminate in late 2019 with two separate launches to low Earth orbit within weeks of each other from two different sites. Competitors will receive information about the final launch sites, payloads, and targeted orbit in the weeks prior to each launch.
KODIAK, AK (Alaska Aerospace PR) — Alaska Aerospace is hosting an Open House at the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) on Wednesday, September 12, 2018 from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm to celebrate twenty years of launch activities. The public is invited to visit the site, where Alaska Aerospace staff will be providing tours of the spaceport facilities.
“In commemoration of twenty years of launch activity from our spaceport in Kodiak, we are excited about this opportunity to showcase our facilities to the public,” said Craig Campbell, Alaska Aerospace President and Chief Executive Officer. “With our expanded business plan of providing launch services to the new small launch vehicle market, we want people to see the changes we have made at the site and learn about our future plans to provide greater economic benefit to the community,” Campbell stated.
Electron launch (Credit: Rocket Lab)
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — 10 July 2018 (Rocket Lab PR) — US orbital launch provider Rocket Lab has today confirmed plans to expand its launch capability by developing a US launch site, with four US space ports shortlisted to launch the Electron rocket.
Final selection is underway with Cape Canaveral, Wallops Flight Facility, Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base. A decision on the confirmed site, to be named Launch Complex 2, is expected to be made in August 2018.
Anchorage, AK — July 6, 2018 (Alaska Aerospace Corporation PR) — Alaska Aerospace today launched Aurora Launch Services as a wholly-owned subsidiary to offer low cost launch services to both commercial and government customers worldwide. Based in Anchorage, Alaska, Aurora Launch Services will be the exclusive provider for launch services at the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska, located in Kodiak. “This is an exciting time for Alaska Aerospace as we […]
Astra Space scrubbed another attempt to launch its Rocket 1 booster from the Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Friday, according to media reports. The company, which is based in Alamedia, Calif., had planned to launch the booster on a suborbital flight. The rocket is composed of a first stage and a dummy second stage. Astra Space had a launch window of May 10-11. The company scrubbed an earlier launch […]
Astra Space has rescheduled the inaugural launch of its new smallsat booster for next month from Pacific Spaceport Complex — Alaska on Kodiak Island. Officials at the Pacific Spaceport Complex did not give a cause for why an April 6 was scrubbed earlier this month, but confirmed the decision was not related to the spaceport facilities, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported Friday. The new launch is scheduled for May 10 […]
