Up on Alaska’s Kodiak Island, a much-ballyhooed commercial rocket launch “Space Port” is becoming “Space Pork.”

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens wants federal taxpayers to pay for this project despite the fact that the state of Alaska's economic development agency has refused to spend $20 million of state money for the Kodiak Launch Complex (KLC) because “there are no paying customers.”

Desperate for enough money to break ground, project boosters are pushing a less choosy state entity to cough up $5 million. Meanwhile, reports indicate that Stevens is seeking up to $23 million in federal appropriations for the project — $18 million through the Defense Department and $5 million through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, according to the Kodiak Daily Mirror.

Local activists are pushing to stop funding for the project that they say would hurt the island's natural resources and create very few permanent jobs for local residents.

With a polar location that makes it easier to put satellites in certain orbits, the KLC was supposed to practically sell itself. Project supporters continue to insist that there is enormous commercial interest.

The KLC intends to compete with Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base for commercial satellite launches. Although construction has yet to begin, upon completion the KLC would be the only non-federally run commercial launch range in the United States.

The State of Alaska appropriated $20 million for construction of the launch site through the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), but AIDEA denied project funding because the launch site does not meet its financial prerequisites. In completing their due diligence requirements, AIDEA found that the launch site did not currently have enough commercial interest to provide revenues sufficient to pay debt and operating expenses. “Not one private entity has signed on the line yet,” Randy Simmons, AIDEA finance manager, told the Kodiak Daily Mirror. “The numbers need to be there to show a profit.”

A state-financed entity — the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation — is under heavy pressure to release $5 million at its upcoming board meeting to begin site preparation this spring in order to meet a 1998 launch date.