The Defense Department may have its most leverage to purchase additional Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines since Congress banned future use of engine, following Sunday’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 launch failure on a mission for NASA.

“I think the DoD’s position about making sure that…[United Launch Alliance] can use all their RD-180s is stronger than ever,” Charles Miller, president of space and public policy consultancy NexGen Space LLC and former NASA senior adviser for commercial space, told Defense Daily in a Monday interview.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launches June 28 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Photo: NASA.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launches June 28 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Photo: NASA.

Air Force brass have asked lawmakers for legislative permission to buy additional Russian-made RD-180s after Congress banned DoD use of Russian engines beyond 2019 in the fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). There’s a national security waiver in Sec. 1608 of the FY ’15 NDAA that allows DoD to buy additional RD-180s beyond those acquired in the 2013 “block buy” of 36 launch cores and those under contract or paid for by Feb. 1, 2014, but the Air Force and DoD have disagreed who is responsible for enacting the waiver. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Hyten told Defense Daily as late as Friday that the service is “working” on whether to enact the national security waiver.

Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been leading the charge in the Senate to reduce Air Force dependence on the RD-180 for national security space launches, citing the national security concern of funding Russia. He has also accused the United States distributor for the RD-180, RD AMROSS, of marking up prices and enriching affiliates of Russian President Vladimir Putin. RD AMROSS the U.S. distributor of the RD-180 and is a joint venture of RD-180 developer NPO Energomash and Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp. [UTX]

DoD wants additional RD-180s to ensure it has two launch vehicles capable of providing “assured access” to space in addition to helping facilitate launch competitions scheduled to take place later this decade. ULA, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA], plans on retiring its Delta IV launch vehicle later this decade, and if the company doesn’t have enough RD-180s to go with its Atlas V launch vehicles, DoD could be giving a “de facto” monopoly on military launch contracts to recent certifier SpaceX.

“If I’m Senator McCain, I fold my hand right now,” Miller said. McCain’s camp did not return multiple requests for comment Monday.

The Air Force said Monday in a statement it was too early to assess any impact from the launch failure on future DoD missions. The service said it is firmly committed to smoothly transitioning its launch enterprise with a continued strong focus on maintaining assured access to space for national security space missions.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle exploded 139 seconds into flight Sunday during its seventh Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) mission from NASA, SpaceX president and CEO Gwynne Shotwell said Sunday during a NASA media briefing. Shotwell said the first stage of the rocket was nominal, but the company saw some pressurization indications in the second stage.

A SpaceX official said Monday afternoon in an email that the first stage continued to operate normally for several seconds after the mishap. Company founder Elon Musk said on Twitter early Monday that the cause was still unknown.

Telemetry indicates SpaceX’s Dragon capsule was healthy and communicating for some time following the mishap, the SpaceX official said. Falcon 9 was traveling at nearly 5,000 km/h and was at an altitude of 45 km when the vehicle experienced a problem with the second stage. First stage ignition and firing of all nine Merlin engines was nominal, trajectory was on target and the first stage continued to operate normally for several seconds after the mishap, according to the SpaceX official.

The Air Force initiated the flight termination system, but the SpaceX official said this played no role in the loss of the rocket. The termination command was initiated approximately 70 seconds after the mishap as a matter of process, the official said. Shotwell said, at the time Sunday, there was no indication that the destruct signal was delivered.

Sunday’s launch failure was the third consecutive CRS mission to suffer a launch failure on their way to delivering cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Fellow CRS contractor Orbital ATK [OA] suffered a launch failure in October when the company’s Antares launch vehicle exploded shortly after liftoff at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va. The launch failure took place under the Orbital Sciences mantle, before the company’s merging with ATK.

Russia also had a mishap during a recent ISS cargo delivery mission. A Soyuz rocket launched on April 28, but Russia lost control of its Progress 59 space capsule on its way to ISS. It burned up upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere two weeks later. Another Progress mission is scheduled for Friday, NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said during Sunday’s briefing. He added that Russia essentially replaced the third stage of the rocket with an older configuration that flew before with Progress.

Gerstenmaier also said Japan has a cargo mission to ISS later this summer while Orbital ATK has a CRS mission of its own toward the end of the year. Gertenmaier said NASA expected to lose some vehicles in CRS, but he didn’t think it would lose “them all” in a one-year time frame.

“It shows the challenges we have facing engineering,” Gerstenmaier said.

Sunday’s launch mishap was the SpaceX’s first on Falcon 9 in 19 launches, company spokesman John Taylor said Monday. House Armed Services (HASC) Strategic Forces Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) reiterated his support for “assured access” Monday in a statement. Rogers and other lawmakers are concerned that only SpaceX will be certified for future military space launch mission if there isn’t a new rocket propulsion system, or at least a new engine, in time for launch competitions later this decade.