If you saw this Orlando Sentinel headline—“Former Fla. lawmaker to help Palin on space”—the first thing that may have popped into your mind was the former vice presidential candidate was already assembling a coterie of advisers to prepare for a future run at national office. And while that might eventually be the case, the news was instead linked to Palin’s current position as Alaska governor: she appointed former Congressman Dave Weldon to the board of directors of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation, the state corporate that operates the Kodiak Launch Complex.
That selection doesn’t sit well with the editorial board of Florida Today, and for reasons having nothing to do with any political ambitions of Governor Palin. The paper is worried that Alaska will use Weldon’s experience and connections to win business away from the Cape, and calls Weldon’s decision to joint the board “disappointing”. An excerpt:
Palin cited Weldon’s experience on the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics for the appointment. But what she didn’t say undoubtedly played a part in the decision:
His insider knowledge of Florida’s plans to utilize Cape Canaveral Air Force Station – which also was in his district – to lure private rocket and satellite companies.
That – coupled with Weldon’s Washington know-how in steering space projects to states – could cost Brevard County more jobs in the fierce competition among Florida and other states to attract launch business at a time when the shuttle’s retirement next year will result in about 3,500 job cuts at KSC.
There is, as you might have guessed, a problem with this assessment: Cape Canaveral and Kodiak aren’t much in competition with one another. While the Cape focuses primarily on larger launch vehicles, including the EELVs and the Shuttle, Kodiak can only currently host small launch vehicles. The Cape can’t support launches in polar orbits (at least not very well), while Kodiak can essentially only do polar orbit launches. And in recent years pretty much the only launch activity out of Kodiak has been in support of missile defense tests, as opposed to satellite launches. So, while it’s good to be vigilant, there’s a fine line between vigilance and paranoia.
Yeah, That one was pretty transparent. Anyone who follows space even moderately closely would see immediately that it’s a totally different market. However, I will say that while the Alaska site won’t pull any business directly from the cape, there is a potential for establishing enough of a base outside of the cape to agitate for a private space defection to non-cape facilities. Given SpaceX’s move to Canaveral, my guess is it won’t be any time soon.
With a thoughtful review of the Fla Today bit, they didn’t think this one out well. Certainly business that Kodiak would get would not be taken from Florida – with the huge difference in launch azimuths that the two places would serve. If Rep Weldon had agreed to advise Wallops that might be different.
Assuming that the Alaska commission meets in Alaska, and Rep Weldon lives in Florida but has a lot of business in DC – if Gov Palin is ever elected President she will probably appoint Rep Weldon to run the FAA!!
This might be more of a “I’ll Scratch Your Back So You’ll Scratch Mine In 2012″ deal than anything else.