Russia may cease deliveries of the RD-180 first stage rocket engine to the United States until the U.S. guarantees they will not be used in military launches, according to Russian media reports.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who also heads the nation’s space efforts, made the statement Tuesday in a Twitter account under his name. Russia Today also cited Russia’s Interfax news agency reporting the news. The Defense Department uses the RD-180 in national security space launches.
President Barack Obama placed Rogozin on an economic sanctions list in March as part of an effort to punish Russia for the political instability in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.
“Sanctions are always a boomerang,” Rogozin said, according to a translated and partial transcript of his announcement posted on a Russian government website Tuesday. “They always come back around and are simply inappropriate in such sensitive spheres as cooperation in space exploration, production of spacecraft engines, and navigation, not to mention manned space flights.”
A federal judge last week temporarily issued an injunction preventing the transfer of money between the Air Force and its national security launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) and RD-180 developer NPO Energomash (Defense Daily, May 8).The injunction was lifted after the judge concluded the transfers did not violate the newly enacted sanctions.
ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said Tuesday in a statement the company and NPO Energomash are not aware of any restrictions and that ULA is hopeful the U.S. and Russia will engage in productive conversations over the next coming months that will resolve the matter quickly. Emails to the Pentagon were not returned by press time.
The Air Force is studying its options in regard to the RD-180, including whether it should build its own next-generation rocket engine domestically. It is believed a new domestically produced engine would take five years and cost nearly $1 billion. The House Armed Services Committee- (HASC) approved version of the fiscal year 2015 authorization bill included $220 million to create a domestic rocket engine for use in lieu of the RD-180 (Defense Daily, May 5).
Rogozin also said the civilian Russian Federal Space Agency, or Roscosmos, will end cooperation with the U.S. on the International Space Station (ISS) after 2020, a significant threat as President Obama recently recommitted the U.S. to the ISS through 2024. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a Senate panel May 1 the ISS “no longer exists” if one country pulls out. The U.S. also relies on Russian transportation to reach the ISS.
“The way we have set up the International Space Station…should we or the Russians choose to pull out, the International Space Station, as we know it, no longer exists,” Bolden told the Senate Appropriations commerce, justice, science and related agencies subcommittee.