Can an Alaskan spaceport ease Pentagon’s launch bottleneck?

Rocket Lab’s announcement that it would launch suborbital rockets from Alaska could ultimately give the Pentagon a much-needed new option for national-security launches, the company and space experts told Defense One.

Last week, the Space Force’s acquisitions arm announced a $266 million, multi-launch contract with the California-based rocket company. That will cover 12 to 18 launches, which will start this year and “primarily take place from a new Rocket Lab location at the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska (PSCA) in Kodiak," the company said. 

These missile-defense missions will be handled by the company’s HASTE rocket, a suborbital variant of its Electron. 

Both rockets “use the same launch infrastructure so yes, operating out of Alaska naturally opens the door to a broader range of possibilities including orbital launch,” a Rocket Lab spokesperson said. “It’s important to remember too that the core systems, infrastructure, and expertise we build and refine in Alaska aren’t tied to just one location.”

Top Space Force officials and lawmakers are concerned that the Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg bases will be unable to handle the projected increase in military-satellite launches. The Space Force expects to launch more than 100 rockets a year within five years and potentially thousands a year by 2036.

An Arctic national-security launch site would reduce the bottleneck and help the military reach polar orbits, said Clayton Swope, the deputy director of CSIS’ Aerospace Security Project.

“Putting something in Alaska, you kind of get both of those things,” Swope said. “You get this diversification away from the two main launch sites we have, and you are creating a launch site that is more optimized around a different type of use, which is related to the orbit, the inclination.”

The state-owned spaceport where Rocket Lab will host its new launch location boasts “a low population density, manageable air and maritime routes” that would distinguish it from some other launch facilities. But it has hosted just nine orbital missions since it was founded in 1998.

Charles Galbreth, a retired Space Force colonel who directs space studies at  the Mitchell Institute, said the Rocket Lab expansion “could potentially be very helpful” for small and medium national-security launches—eventually.

“It's a capacity or a capability waiting for a demand signal,” Galbreth said. “So there's got to be the combination.”

Alaska can be an important addition, yet its isolation will present challenges, said Brian Weeden, who directs civil and commercial policy for the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy.

“I certainly think there is room for an expansion of different kinds of launch activity in Alaska. I don't think it's going to probably take the place of also standing in other areas,” Weeden said. “You're still going to need power. You're going to need to get rocket fuel up there. You're going to get the payloads transported up there, and that may be a little bit harder to do in a more remote location like Kodiak, as opposed to a place like Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg, where a lot of infrastructure already exists.”