Another blast-off for Kodiak: Alaska enters a new frontier aboard the Kodial Launch Complex.

• Author: Jeffrey, Sue

Countdown has begun for Alaska as it prepares to launch a satellite into orbit from Kodiak Island next summer and take a giant step into the new frontier-commercial aerospace.

Under the direction of Alaska's aerospace agency, the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp., the state will be ready for lift-off at the Kodiak Launch Complex, the state-of-the-art rocket launch facility being built on the northeast coast of Kodiak.

Construction of the $40 million project (Alaska is spending $10 million; the federal government, $30 million) is scheduled to wrap up in November.

The launch complex has everything a launch customer needs, says AADC executive director Pat Ladner, including a payload processing center to work on sensitive satellite electronics and an all-weather launch tower that shields rockets from the elements until countdown begins.

A Perfect Place

The Kodiak Launch Complex's hilly, tundra-covered location at Narrow Cape-a peninsula at the end of a gravel road 40 miles southeast of the city of Kodiak-is remote. Its nearest neighbors are herds of buffalo and cattle belonging to a rancher in the area.

"Narrow Cape is ideal for launching satellites into polar low-earth orbit because of its close proximity to the North Pole, which allows rockets to use less fuel to reach polar orbit-a savings for the launch customer," said Ladner. "And the site has a clear trajectory for thousands of miles to the south over open ocean."

NASA plans to use the Kodiak facility to launch a new environmental monitoring program, the Vegetation Canopy Lidar. The VCL satellite will be sent into orbit 281 miles above the Earth aboard an Athena I, a 60-foot Lockheed Martin rocket. The satellite, about 7 feet tall by 4 feet wide and weighing 954 pounds, will measure the Earth's vegetation coverage, vegetation depth (or canopy) and topography by using short laser pulses from a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system, according to NASA's Web site.

Other commercial launch sites in the U.S. and around the globe that launch rocket-bearing satellites include Spaceport Florida at Cape Canaveral, Spaceport California at Vandenberg Air Force Base, France's launch site on remote French Guiana, and launch facilities in remote areas of Russia and China. But Kodiak offers the U.S. launch customer one major advantage, Ladner says: It is the first commercial launch site on U.S. soil not located on a federal facility.

"The Kodiak Launch Complex is owned by the State of Alaska and...