ADN story unpacks Kodiak rocket launch contract dispute

An Anchorage Daily News story alleges that the state-owned rocket launch complex on Kodiak Island may have been involved in government waste and improprieties in awarding a contract.

The aerospace corporation is owned by the state and runs the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska at Narrow Cape. It works with both  commercial launch companies and government entities including the Missile Defense agency.

The agency has a five-year contract with the aerospace corporation and it needs to house as many as 210 people near the complex for this year’s launch, according to sources quoted in the ADN story. Details of the launch are secret.

Earlier this year, a tractor-trailer carrying materials destined for the Kodiak Island rocket complex for temporary housing hit an overpass along the Glenn Highway near Eagle River, snarling traffic for days.  

But as Daysha Eaton with KMXT learned by talking with ADN reporter Nathaniel Herz, there is a whole lot more to this complicated story – one connected with a contracting dispute with allegations of malfeasance and nepotism.