This month, Congress and President Donald Trump committed nearly $25 billion to develop a missile defense system to shield North America.
Alaska's top aerospace official says that means huge business opportunities are coming for the state’s two rocket launch sites on Kodiak Island and Fairbanks.
“Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space," President Donald Trump said on May 20 as part of his announcement of the Golden Dome project.
John Oberst, the CEO and president of the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, said a multi-layered defense system that can intercept hypersonic missiles will require lots of test launches to develop.
“You have to launch targets for other things to test against," he said. "And in some cases, there may be some communications or sensors related to that that needs to be spread out in the United States, and spaceports are good places to host that.”
There are only a handful of spaceports around the country. And the main ones, like at Cape Canaveral in Florida or Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, are already backed up. Another main spaceport in the U.S. is Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starbase on the southern tip of Texas, which is currently focused on launching its own Starship rockets.
Oberst said that makes the Pacific Spaceport Complex-Alaska on Kodiak Island near Narrow Cape attractive. Also, unlike Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg, Kodiak’s space port is commercial, not federal.
“It’s getting very complicated to launch in federal spaceports. The bureaucracy alone is challenging for commercial launch providers," Oberst explained. "So if they come out here to us, we have a very few layers of decision-makers that’s needed to get a launch up because we’re not on federal land. It doesn’t change the policy or the regulations that we have to follow with the FAA, it’s just fewer people to deal with to accomplish the same task.”
When Trump signed the “one big beautiful bill” into law, it included $500 million for what it refers to as “national security space launch infrastructure” under a section titled “Enhancement of Department of Defense Resources for Integrated Air and Missile Defense," which also includes billions for “development of space-based and boost phase intercept capabilities, space-based sensors and hypersonic defense systems."
It’s unclear how that money will be spent and which of the country’s spaceports will benefit from those infrastructure funds. But Oberst expects some will come to Alaska.
“And I’m optimistic that it’s going to be something that’s going to really enhance what we’re doing right now," he said. "And I’ll go beyond Kodiak, because I think that the $500 million that they allocated was for space launch infrastructure, and if you look at Poker Flat, it could help us establish the orbital piece up there.”
The Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks can only launch rockets or other objects into sub-orbit and mainly focuses on scientific rocket launches.
The University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute owns the Poker Flat facility and recently signed an agreement with Alaska Aerospace Corporation to increase the number of launches in Fairbanks and on Kodiak Island.
But Kodiak’s spaceport has already been involved in missile defense before. In 2019 the facility near Narrow Cape was used as a test site for Israel’s anti-ballistic missile system, part of its Iron Dome missile defense shield.
Oberst said he submitted a “wish list” to the Department of Defense after the agency asked him what he would like at the Kodiak Island spaceport to support space access and testing for the Golden Dome project. President Trump has said he wants the missile defense system fully operational by the time his term is over at the end of 2028.
