CEO and President of Alaska Aerospace Corporation John Oberst was beaming as he welcomed NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman to the spaceport near Narrow Cape.
"We’re just excited that you’re here today," Oberst told Isaacman. "We haven’t had a NASA administrator visit our site; they’ve been up to Poker Flat before but not here, so we really appreciate your time."
"[I] Wasn’t going to miss it," Isaacman responded.
It’s been 25 years since NASA launched a rocket from the Kodiak Island spaceport. When the agency put an Athena 1 rocket with four satellites onboard into orbit in 2001, that was also the spaceport’s first orbital launch according to NASA.
Isaacman didn’t ask many questions during his afternoon visit to the 3,700-acre state-owned facility. But he did ask about other spaceport users.
"I knew some years ago that Astra was spending time up here," Isaacman said. "Which of the launch providers do you see taking advantage of these facilities?"
"Rocket Lab, Rocket Lab is coming,” Oberst said.
Isaacman also asked about how much more launch capacity the spaceport has.
NASA branded the administrator's first visit to Kodiak as part of its “Inspiration Tour” around the country to strengthen its partnerships and highlight air and space innovations. The agency is currently focused on returning to the moon, establishing a more permanent presence there with a lunar base, and sending nuclear-powered, unmanned vehicles to Mars.
Isaacman didn’t make any commitments or announce any specific projects with the Alaska Aerospace Corporation during his time in Kodiak. Oberst, however, said he is expecting NASA to return to the spaceport.
“And I think we are going to see some NASA initiatives…that they bring to Kodiak in the future as well," said Oberst.
He added, either with the agency’s own rocket or with a payload on another entity’s rocket.
“NASA is involved with us from a scientific level," he said. "We have scientists that came out here about a month ago and they want to bring missions to Kodiak. When I say that, they want to bring their payloads to Kodiak and launch them on a rocket launch provider that would launch out of Kodiak.”
According to Oberst, NASA has visited the Kodiak Island spaceport three different times in the last two months through its work with various agencies. He did not name the agencies or provide more details about those visits.
Isaacman, the NASA administrator, also visited the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Monday, Oct. 5 and the university’s scientific rocket launching facility, Poker Flat Research Range.
