Despite protestations by Senator John McCain, in December the US Senate has suspended its ban on the Russian-built RD-180 rocket engine being purchased via a provision in its US government spending bill – at least while a US alternative is not available for the Atlas V rocket series that uses it on its first stage. For while Aerojet Rocketdyne is trying to develop a suitable engine – the AR1- two of which will replace a single RD-180 on the Atlas V though this design will not be ready for years yet. The Atlas V is operated by the United Launch Alliance – a joint firm operated by Boeing and Lockheed Martin to offer government launches – while Lockheed Martin has the right to offer commercial launches using the rocket. Atlas V is known to be cheaper to operate than its stable mate, the Delta IV, which uses different fuel (Delta IV uses liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen core versus kerosene/liquid oxygen for the Atlas V) and all-US-built rocket engines
It was originally Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin who started the trouble when he said that Russian-built RD-180 rocket engines should not be used on US military launches of the Atlas V, this was soon followed by a counter ban on further RD-180 engine procurements instituted by the US Senate which also wanted to retaliate against Russia’s annexation of Ukraine and its behaviour in Syria. This, of course, meant that Russia would lose income, but also that USA would lose one of its main ways to launch its military satellites. Sense has since prevailed – or rather the reality that for the time being there was no other engine available.
