The first launch from Alaska's spaceport on Kodiak Island will be made on 31 August 2001. A Lockheed Martin Athena 1 solid propellant booster, originally assigned to launch NASA's delayed Vegetation Canopy Lidar (VCL) satellite, has been procured for the flight of a NASA/Department of Defense mission. The Kodiak Star mission will carry NASA's 1m (3.3ft) diameter, 100kg (220lb) Starshine 3 and three DoD satellites.
The DoD craft are the PICOsat, which will carry vibration, ionospheric and polymer battery technologies; PCSat, which will become part of the amateur radio community's automatic position reporting system; and the Sapphire microsatellite, to test tunnelling horizon infrared detectors, a digital camera and a voice synthesiser.
Source: Flight International