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Air Force

Congress Needs To Make Tough Space Launch Choices, LaPlante Says

Pat Host

Tuesday, November 24th, 2015

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Congress Needs To Make Tough Space Launch Choices, LaPlante Says

NASA engineers successfully test the Russian-built RD-180 in 1998 at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Ala. Photo: NASA.

Congress, in the next three to four years, can have two national security space launch vehicles, competition for launches or it can get the Air Force off the Russian RD-180 engine, but it can’t have all three, the outgoing Air Force acquisition chief said Tuesday.Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition William LaPlante, referring to lawmakers, said everyone wants off the RD-180, competition and two ways to get to space, but the ban on future purchases of the RD-180,…

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