The American company Orbital Sciences will buy from NPO "Energomash" 60 rocket engines for $ 1 billion

Khimki NPO Energomash has concluded a contract for the supply of RD-181 rocket engines to the American Orbital corporation. The engines will be used in the first stage of the Antares rocket starting in 2015. The contract amount is close to $ 1 billion. This amount includes not only the cost of the engine, but also a whole range of services: flight training, installation of the engine on a rocket, testing.

"- We pledged to supply only 60 engines, " a high-ranking source in Roskosmos told Izvestia . - That is, there is now a firm contract for 20 engines, which we have already begun to implement, since the first two cars should be delivered in June next year. Plus there are two options, each for 20. The contract was made directly between Orbital Sciences Corp. and NPO Energomash. The engine was taken from the RD-191 Angara, although the new rocket is always a new engine. Pressure in the combustion chamber RD-181 - 262 atmospheres. Temperature in K The critical point is 3500 ° C. Few metals can withstand such temperatures, so the original solution for cooling the combustion chamber walls was found and applied, ensuring the safety of the units.If the RD-191 engine to control thrust vector is swinging all at only the combustion chamber, which improves the performance of both the engine and the carrier as a whole. "

Interestingly, in a press release from Orbital Sciences, which announces the signing of a contract with a new engine supplier, the name and origin of the supplier is not mentioned. Simultaneously with the signing of the contract in the House of Representatives of the US Congress, the refusal to purchase RD-180 rocket engines was considered. As a result of the discussions, only the ban on the use of the RD-180 in military programs was supported, which was widely covered by the American media as a “rejection of Russian engines.” In Orbital, they probably did not want to report on the signing of a contract for $ 1 billion with NPO Energomash the next day.
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Antares rockets, which are mainly used for cargo delivery to the ISS, were initially equipped with AJ-26 engines, which are slightly altered by the NK-33 engines. The NK-33 engines were manufactured in the USSR back in the 70s and went to the Americans "at a sale" of the early 90s from the SNTK. N. D. Kuznetsova. However, the engines were altered quite badly, as evidenced by a missile accident in October 2014 . This year it was decided to transfer the missiles to the RD-181.

It is worth recalling that in the spring of this year SpaceX filed a lawsuit demanding to suspend the supply of engines of the RD-180 modification to the USA. The lawsuit was filed by Ilon Musk, the beloved by the geeks community, formally due to the fact that such supplies violate the sanctions imposed by the United States against Russia. In fact, it is clear that the lawsuit was filed in order to increase the competitive capabilities of SpaceX, which is developing its own launch vehicles, including its own engines. Thus, Musk planned to remake the market in which the United Launch Alliance (ULA, a joint company of Lockheed Martin and Boeing) almost exclusively dominates. However, only a week later the claim was rejected and the deliveries of the engines proceeded without interruption.

The rocket engines in the United States are supplied from the Moscow-based Khimki joint venture RD-Amros, the founder of which from the Russian side is NPO Energomash. In the period from 1997 to 2007. RD-Amros exported over 40 engines to the USA. In 2013-2018. RD-Amros should send four to six engines per year to Americans.