8 Nov 2013: Alaska Aerospace Response to Kodiak Residents' Comments on Proposed Pasagshak Barge Dock

The barge landing proposed by Alaska Aerospace is for medium-sized rockets; AAC has no contracts or firm commitments to launch any such rockets at this time.  As you read this letter, note that in point #5 Mr. Greby makes reference to the "true community"; apparently Kodiak residents who took the time to write and submit comments are not to be considered the "true community".  A PDF file of all comments is available by emailing kodiakrocketlaunch@gmail.com
Apologies for the formatting - it appears to be fine in the draft page, but when published, strange line breaks appeared.
 

-----Original Message-----

From: Mark Greby [mailto:mark.greby@akaerospace.com]

Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 9:28 AM

To: Laura Gurley; Roberta K POA Budnik

Cc: John Cramer; Jeffrey Roberts; John Zbitnoff

Subject: Public Meeting on Pasagshak Barge Landing

Dear Laura and Roberta,

Alaska Aerospace Corporation will be happy to host a public forum session about our Barge

Landing permitting. Our Public Affairs officer, John Cramer, is out of pocket through next

week, so I'd like to postpone specific scheduling and planning until after he returns to the

office. Our target timeline would be the latter part of October to ensure we have done our

research on the questions already received and allow time for arranging the venue. We truly

want to be open and fair to the entire Kodiak community, and never be seen as "rushing to

judgment" or avoiding contact.

Some thoughts:

1. We do want a Corps of Engineer rep at the meeting so it is seen by all as open and fair.

2. We do want our Public Affairs Officer (VP, Chief of Admin) to work with the CoE about

timing and format of the session. We don't do these often, and would like to benefit from

their (your? <grin>) expertise.

3. The great majority of the comments received seemed to be a very vocal group of folks from

Pasagshak who do not want a boat landing on public property because someone other than them

may actually use it. We would like to discuss appropriate meeting formats to ensure that

those folks get heard, but not allow the public forum to be hijacked by a few folks. The AK

and Kodiak communities can be very entertainingly vocal.

1

4. We think the public forum should be structured to provide the design, clarify any factual

misunderstandings, and collect comments. We do not believe that this is the correct forum

for a debate or rant by either sides about relative merit.

5. I know the CoE has dealt with groups whose voice and presence is disproportionate to the

true community, and we'd like to discuss how they measure and evaluate that input.

I'm on the road today, and I'll give Laura a call on Friday to follow up. Thanks for the

help so far!

Mark Greby

Sr VP & COO

Alaska Aerospace Corporation

907-343-9627

mark.greby@akaerospace.com

Launch or Lose Funding Ultimatum Given to Alaska Aerospace

Legislature pressures Alaska Aerospace to launch

by James Brooks/ editor@kodiakdailymirror.com

Apr 22, 2013

On Sunday afternoon, a rocket soared to orbit from a launch pad on Virginia, a successful launch that may mean good news for the Kodiak Launch Complex 4,000 miles away.

This spring, the Alaska Legislature voted to cut 1 percent (about $80,000) from the Alaska Aerospace Corporation’s FY2014 funding. Hidden within the funding for Alaska Aerospace — which operates the Kodiak Launch Complex — is a catch.

If Alaska Aerospace does not sign a long-term commercial launch contract by March 31, 2014, the legislature will cut its budget by one-quarter.

That’s below the amount AAC leaders have said is necessary to maintain the Kodiak Launch Complex and keep AAC running as a viable corporation, but AAC CEO Craig Campbell said he’s confident his company can meet the challenge.

“I concurred with the challenge that we need to produce a customer in the next fiscal year,” he said. “They actually gave us a little breathing room.”

Alaska Aerospace Corporation was founded by the state in 1991 as a means to develop the aerospace sector of Alaska’s economy. It built the Kodiak Launch Complex to compete with California’s Vandenberg Spaceport, which launches satellites into polar orbits.

While the first years of AAC’s operation were funded through revenue from launches and grants from the federal government, since 2011 AAC has become reliant upon regular state subsidies.

In 2011, the Legislature approved $4 million for AAC. In 2012, it signed off on $8 million in direct subsidies. That year, Governor Sean Parnell also approved $25 million to expand Kodiak Launch Complex.

Legislators approved another $8 million this year for AAC, but cut the corporation’s funding request by 1 percent, paralleling similar cuts to other state departments.

Rep. Alan Austerman, who represents Kodiak in the state House and sits on the AAC board of directors, said legislators’ patience is running out. “We can’t just let it continue to go on and on and on,” he said.

Campbell said AAC can bear this year’s cut, but he now faces a tight deadline to generate revenue and wean the public corporation off state funding.

Sunday’s launch in Virginia shows one possible way forward. The launch came from Wallops Flight Facility, a state-owned spaceport run by Dale Nash, who headed Alaska Aerospace before Campbell.

The rocket, named Antares, was designed and built by Orbital Sciences, which has not yet picked a West Coast launch site for the Antares. Kodiak is in the running, as is Vandenberg.

Launching the Antares from Kodiak would require a major expansion of the spaceport here, something already planned under an agreement with Lockheed-Martin.

Lockheed, however, has been slow to sell space aboard the rockets it plans to launch from Kodiak, and planning for the Launchpad expansion has stalled. Unless Lockheed can confirm a launch date, Campbell has said he will not put state money at risk by expanding the Kodiak Launch Complex.

Orbital Sciences offers a second route. Because the Antares launch Sunday was successful, that rocket may be more attractive than Lockheed’s to satellite owners who want to reach orbit.

The ball is in Orbital Sciences’ court, but Alaska Aerospace isn’t sitting still.

As it waits for an answer from Orbital and Lockheed, the state-owned corporation is negotiating contracts for smaller rockets that can be launched from Kodiak’s existing launchpads.

“I think I’m going to have one in the near term, this year,” Campbell said.

Campbell’s optimism is matched by Sen. Gary Stevens, who formerly sat on AAC’s board of directors and represents Kodiak in the Alaska Senate. “I think you'll find that in the next two years they'll have some successful projects and some successful launches,” he said. “I think it’ll show that they’re in the market and they can successfully compete.”

Until a company signs on the dotted line, however, AAC will continue to move closer to March 31, a date that might be its final countdown.

As of April 22, it has been 573 days since the last launch at the KLC.

Contact Mirror editor James Brooks at editor@kodiakdailymirror.com.

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