Posted on 03/21/2018 5:07:55 PM PDT by Elderberry
An Alaskan spaceport will host the first launch of a rocket developed by a stealthy startup company as soon as next week, spaceport officials confirmed March 20.
Alaska Aerospace Corp., which operates Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska (PSCA) on Kodiak Island, said the launch period for the flight of the unidentified vehicle runs from March 27 to April 6. It did not specify when during the day the launch would take place.
A “Local Notice to Mariners” issued by the U.S. Coast Guard March 14 included a notice about a rocket launch planned from PSCA, giving a window of March 26 to April 6. The notice included two caution areas, one in waters immediately south of the spaceport and the other several hundred kilometers to the south-southwest, that mariners should stay clear of during launch operations.
The spaceport is releasing few details about the launch itself. “I can only say PSCA is conducting a launch operation called P120 and it is a commercial California company,” said Barry King, director of range operations for Alaska Aerospace, in a March 20 email. “No other details can be provided until after launch.”
King did state that the launch would be suborbital and that, being a commercial launch, would require a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation. No launch licenses for any vehicles operating from Alaska are included on a publicly available list of active licenses maintained by the FAA, although it is not uncommon for such licenses to be issued shortly before a scheduled launch.
A local newspaper, the Kodiak Daily Mirror, also reported the launch plans, but gave a launch window of April 6-13, a timeframe stated in an earlier Coast Guard notice superseded by the March 14 notice.
(Excerpt) Read more at spacenews.com ...
Launches from Canaveral boost a rocket ~1,550km/hr in the direction of the earth’s rotation. Launches from Juneau are boosted ~900km/hr. A bit better than half the added boost from a Florida site (which itself is almost as good as an equatorial launch, despite difference in latitude). Launches from Baikanour receive an assist of ~1,250 km/hr and that site is still in regular use.
All to say that while a launch from Alaska isn’t ideal, it still offers a welcome assist.
...The only advantage of a high-latitude launch site is if one has clients who want their satellites put into polar, near polar, or retrograde orbits.
Retrograde? Why on earth would anybody want to launch rockets from Alaska headed TO THE WEST?
If they want a polar orbit, they need to launch south (away from Russian airspace) out over the Pacific. For a suborbital test launch though?
But you have to test the launch pad and controls and operators too before the real launch.
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