Many residents saw a failed rocket test at the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska on Kodiak Island this summer and pointed to the facility’s shortcomings. But the Kodiak spaceport will sign an agreement later this week to support other spaceports across the country and the world by sharing one of its systems known as RSTS.
When a rocket is launched from any spaceport, the typical standard practices involve tracking the flight and remotely monitoring it through what’s known as a Range Safety and Telemetry System, or RSTS.
“It’s also providing a safety function where if that rocket starts to have any issues, we make sure we destroy it before it gets anywhere where it can do harm. So that’s the range. Safety is the control of the rocket and destroying it if something goes wrong. And telemetry is tracking that data stream from the rocket, where we’re tracking the rocket and getting the data from it," John Oberst, the chief executive officer of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, said.
The Alaska Aerospace Corporation oversees the spaceport at Narrow Cape on Kodiak Island.
Oberst said the Kodiak spaceport has set up its own version of the RSTS in shipping containers to be mobile and deployable all over the world.
He said the system has gone to spaceports in countries across the United Kingdom and Europe, as well as New Zealand; just to name a few.
“Rocket Lab, which is a very successful rocket company, in my opinion, on the commercial side is second to SpaceX right now; we helped them with their first 10 flights with RSTS," Oberst explained. "We helped them become Rocket Lab in New Zealand years ago.”
Oberst will be in Italy on Oct. 13 to sign an agreement with eight other spaceports from various countries. He said it will create more standardization across spaceports.
The head of the Kodiak spaceport said they mostly employ folks who are working and living in Kodiak. When the system is shipped overseas teams from the island go, too. Oberst said the spaceport has enough staff to support two missions or launches simultaneously, one in Kodiak and one abroad.
Alaska Aerospace Corporation, which owns and operates the island spaceport, is a state entity and led by a nine-member board of directors. Currently Kodiak resident Lindsay Knight is the Board Chair.
Since 2015, the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska on Kodiak Island has not used state or federal funds to cover its operations or maintenance costs and must instead rely on its earned revenue.
That said, the spaceport has to make enough money to cover operating costs like utility bills and employee’s wages. Oberst said RSTS and other activities, aside from just launching rockets, bring that revenue in.
“And when you’re not launching a rocket, there’s still preparations for a launch, pad modifications, pre-exercise scenarios where you go through the motions of launching a rocket, but you don’t actually launch a rocket. Those are all revenue generating events and that’s where we get our revenue to keep the doors open," he said.
And those activities are necessary as there likely won’t be a rocket launch taking place on Kodiak Island before the end of this year. ABL Space Systems was preparing to launch one of its rockets this summer, but a test went awry in July. Its rocket was damaged beyond repair.
In the coming weeks, Oberst said residents will most likely see activities going on at the spaceport that look like preparations for a launch, however they are just exercises and tests to prepare for next year.
