CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A herd of buffalo, eagles and gravel roads provide the backdrop for Alaska's first attempt at putting satellites into orbit tonight.
The main hurdle the launch faces is the weather. There is an 80 percent chance conditions will prohibit liftoff during the two-hour launch window of 5-7 p.m. Alaska Time (9 to 11 p.m. EDT; 0100-0300 GMT Saturday).
The scenery is different from the sun-baked beaches of Cape Canaveral, but designing and managing the construction of a new launch facility remained the same for the Suntree-based firm BRPH Architects that has worked for years on the Cape's assortment of launch pads.
The company, which has played a role in launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force station, began working with the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation in 1992.
Nine years later, the effort could pay off with tonight's planned launch of the Kodiak Star, a Lockheed Martin-made Athena 1 rocket carrying four small satellites.
Two rockets have shot satellites into space from Kodiak before, but they were not designed to orbit, just to skip in and out of space.
Drawing on Florida's space experience, the Alaskan launch facility cost about $40 million to build, compared to the $150 million to $300 million price tag for new launch complexes at the Cape. The big difference is that the launch pads here are built to fire almost the whole inventory of American rockets. The Kodiak Island base was designed for the relatively small Athena launchers, although it can be modified to host larger craft like Boeing's Delta 2. The company's Cape experiences "have all been kind of added up and applied at Kodiak," BRPH President and CEO Dick Jolley said Thursday.
While competitive with some states trying to get into the launch game, Spaceport Florida officials have no fear of losing business to the Kodiak Launch Complex, said authority Executive Director Ed Gormel.
"Because the Alaska Spaceport is primarily positioned for polar orbits, we complement not compete with each other," he said.
Launches from Cape Canaveral fly on an equatorial path.
While involving similar missions, Jolley said the terrain could not be any different from that of the Cape. That and the island's small population proved the biggest challenges to building a modern launch facility about 250 miles south of Anchorage. With a populatoin of 15,000, the people on the island number slightly more than the number of workers at Kennedy Space Center.
"They're good, hardworking people, they've just never seen a missile launch complex before," Jolley said.
There are few roads on the island, so trucks had to travel 40 miles over jagged gravel paths from the island's port to the launch site during construction.
"The rocks are sharp, so the trucks had to use 8-ply tires and even then they didn't last very long," Jolley said.
Like Kennedy Space Center, Alaska's launch complex was designed to mix with the natural surroundings.
"There's a very large buffalo herd on the island, and that herd pretty much goes where it wants to go," Jolley said, explaining that the animals often turn up just outside the doors to the launch control center. "There are eagles just about year-round. It was all planned to be very respectful of the terrain. When you go in with that in mind, it becomes easier."
Published under license from FLORIDA TODAY. Copyright © 2001 FLORIDA TODAY. No portion of this material may be reproduced in any way without the written consent of FLORIDA TODAY.
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