The failure of the United States of RD-180 engines threatens some programs of NASA

The uncertain situation with the purchase of Russian rocket engines RD-180 threatens the financial viability of some US civil space programs, writes WSJ, citing sources in the aerospace industry.

Political disputes around the RD-180 engines for Atlas V missiles have already negatively affected the United Launch Alliance (a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin), the main contractor for launching satellites for the Pentagon, but this is not the only problem. Due to the sharp decrease in the number of Atlas V launches, the cost of delivering cargo and crews to the ISS is likely to increase over the next decade.

According to some experts, the cost of launches for NASA in future years will increase by hundreds of millions of dollars. Nobody provided such additional expenses.
')
An informed source said that this issue was raised during a recent teleconference between the head of NASA, Charles Bolden (Charles Bolden) and the leadership of the corporation Boeing. Apparently, the National Space Agency was faced with the fact that the customer would have to pay additional costs.

“Reducing the number of launches can increase the cost of [each individual launch],” said John Elbon, vice president and general manager of the Boeing space program, yesterday at a hearing in the parliamentary committee on science, space and technology. “Ultimately, this will affect [the United Launch Alliance’s commercial launches for crew delivery to the ISS].”

United Launch Alliance has not yet commented on the expert assessment. Representatives from NASA said that a contract was concluded with ULA at fixed prices, but the contract provides for the replacement of equipment by the company if some parts are not available. The representative of NASA also expressed support for the program to develop American rocket engines instead of RD-180.

The United Launch Alliance is one of the private contractors who deliver cargo to the ISS for NASA. The rates of the second operator SpaceX should not affect the problems with the Atlas V rocket. While Ilona Mask’s business is going well, the United Launch Alliance announced the dismissal of approximately 25% of the staff in the next two years.

Problems with Atlas V have already led to the fact that the third private contractor Sierra Nevada, which plans to deliver cargo to the ISS, is now considering alternative ways of launching its transport ships into orbit, choosing between European and Russian missiles.

In 2014, the US Congress decided to abandon the Russian engines and accelerate the development of American analogues, but this ban was lifted in the budget law, which came into force in December and is valid until October 2016.