Rocket Lab to build fourth launch complex at Kodiak spaceport

Rocket Lab is establishing a new launch complex at the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island to carry out missile defense test flights under a $266 million U.S. Space Force contract. The site will be the company's fourth launch complex. The others are Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and Launch Complexes 2 and 3 in Virginia. The first flight from the site is expected no earlier than the end of 2026.

The contract calls for at least 12 suborbital launches, with an option for six more by the end of 2028. The Department of Defense announced the award on July 21. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the contract includes up to 18 launches, "with the majority expected to lift off from the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak." That is not necessarily every mission covered by the award. The launches will use Rocket Lab's HASTE hypersonic test vehicle. The Space Force's Space Systems Command Rocket Systems Launch Program, which manages the award, handles suborbital launch services used for missile defense and hypersonic testing.

Alaska News previously covered the award, a firm-fixed-price contract for 12 suborbital HASTE launches from the state-owned Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska. The spaceport, formerly the Kodiak Launch Complex, sits on roughly 3,700 acres of state land. It is owned and operated by the Alaska Aerospace Corporation, a government-owned corporation. The site supported a U.S. Space Force orbital mission from pad LP-3B in November 2021. When the Federal Aviation Administration and Alaska Aerospace reviewed an earlier pad at the site in 2014, public commenters raised concerns about wildlife, subsistence use and community effects from expanded launch operations. The current status of environmental review or FAA licensing for the new pad could not be determined.

Murkowski said in a post on X on Wednesday that she secured $45.5 million through the fiscal 2026 appropriations process to expand launch capabilities at Kodiak. "This is a major win for both Alaska and our national security," she wrote.

Rocket Lab, in a post on X, said it was "excited to bring a new era of responsive launch capability to Alaska in support of national security."