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Senate OKs Continued Use Of Russian Rocket Engines For NASA Missions

By Marc Selinger

Thursday, June 15th, 2017

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Senate OKs Continued Use Of Russian Rocket Engines For NASA Missions

Orbital Sciences' Antares launch vehicle. Photo: Orbital Sciences

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed an amendment to an Iran-Russia sanctions bill (S. 722) June 15 to ensure NASA and its industry partners can keep relying on Russian-made rocket engines.Supporters said the amendment makes a "technical" correction to the bill to allow Orbital ATK [OA] to continue using its Antares rocket to launch astronauts to the International Space Station under a contract with NASA. Antares’ first-stage engine is the Russian RD-181.They also said the amendment will ensure that United Launch…

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