Second US Judge Lifts Temporary Injunction on Russian Rocket Engine Purchases

An RD-180 engine and Atlas 5 first stage arrive at the launch pad in Florida.

Credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

U.S. federal judge on Thursday (May 8) lifted an injunction that temporarily barred the U.S. Air Force and United Launch Alliance from buying Russian-made rocket engines for launching launch national security missions that had been issued out of concern that the purchases violated sanctions against Russian leaders.

In issuing the temporary injunction April 30, Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims cited the possibility that money from the transactions could wind up in the hands of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s space industry.

Rogozin is one of 11 senior Russian officials sanctioned by the U.S. government following Russia’s incursions into Ukraine.

The engine in question is the RD-180, which is built by NPO Energomash of Russia and sold to ULA by RD-Amross, a joint venture between Energomash and United Technologies Corp.

The engine is used on the first stage of ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket, one of two vehicles operated by the company.

Braden specified that the injunction would stand pending a determination by the U.S. Treasury, Commerce and State departments that RD-180 purchases did not specifically violate the sanctions.

In letters filed with the court May 6, officials with those departments said no decision had been made to specifically label NPO Energomash as a Rogozin-controlled enterprise.

Additionally, "to the best of our knowledge, purchases from and payments to NPO Energomash currently do not directly or indirectly contravene" the sanctions, Bradley Smith, chief counsel for the Treasury Department, said in a letter to the court.

The State Department's letter echoed that sentiment, while Commerce deferred to the other agencies.

Based on those letters, Braden wrote May 8, she was dissolving the temporary injunction.

"If the Government receives any indication, however, that purchases from or payment of money to NPO Energomash by ULS, ULA, or the United States Air Force will directly or indirectly" violate the White House sanctions, the government must inform the court immediately, she wrote.

US to launch production of Russian RD-180 rocket engines

The US Air Force is studying the possibility of launching the licensed production of Russian RD-180 rocket engines in the United States.

The US will begin assessing the licensed production of such engines in the next few weeks.

The Russian-made RD-180 rocket engine is one of the few high-tech Russian products that are in demand in the United States.

The engines are manufactured by the Energomash Russian power engineering corporation.

In the United States, the RD Amross joint venture adapts the engines for use in the heavy Atlas-V launch systems.

RD-180 rocket engines is one half of the RD-170 four-nozzle engine, which was designed for the first stage of the Energiaheavy-lift expandable launch system decades ago.

In 1996, the RD-180 project won the tender for developing and delivering the first stage engine for an updated PH Atlas rocket, manufactured by the US Lockheed Martin Corporation.

The development of the engine, based on the series-produced RD-170/171, helped Energomash survive the hardest years for Russian rocket-building companies, - from the mid-1990s to the mid-zeros.

An agreement was signed in 1997 on the delivery to the United States of 101 RD-180 rocket engines until the end of 2018.

By late last year, Energomash had supplied to the US more than 70 rocket engines for 10 million dollars each, which accounted for a sizeable part of the corporation's revenues, - more than a third, according to some estimates.

Given that the supply of engines to the home market yielded hardly any profit at the time, it is safe to claim that the RD-180 rocket engines programme kept the corporation out of bankruptcy.

ATLAS EELV Family

Political complications
The agreement with the United States has been performed by 75% (?).

However, the US is not about to stop using its Atlas rockets, which will call for extending the agreement.

Russia considered the cessation of deliveries of RD-180 rocket engines to the United States in summer 2013 since the US has been using its Atlas-V launch systems to place defence-related devices into orbit.

Although no decision was made, but the fact that Russia considered stopping supplies, the US decided to overhaul its space launch programme.

According to one option, Washington could launch the series licensed production of RD-180 rocket engines in the United States but the option obviously suffers from a couple of flaws; the cost of the engine is estimated to grow by approximately 50% and; a licensed agreement per se and the supply of key engine components from Russia call for trust-based relations between the two countries.

The full-cycle production of RD-180 rocket engines in the United States would prove a guarantee against any risks, of course, but Russia is hardly prepared to accept that and, besides, the expenditures will be comparable to the spending on the designing of a new engine.