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Russia to no longer sell rocket engines to the United States

Space

CIO Bulletin
2022-03-04

Russia’s state space agency Roscosmos has retaliated to global sanctions, claiming Russia will no longer sell rocket engines to the United States. Most rocket launches in the U.S. would not be affected, but the decision would affect how cargo is launched to the International Space Station.

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, announced a new policy in an interview with the Russia 24 TV channel. In the interview, Rogozin said they had decided to stop the deliveries of rocket engines manufactured by NPO Energomash to the United States. He went on to say that the deliveries had been quite intensive somewhere since the mid-1990s and asked Americans to fly on something else, maybe their broomsticks.

According to Rogozin, Russia has delivered 122 RD-180 engines to the United States since the 1990s, 98 of which have been used to power NASA’s Atlas launch vehicles.

The decision would primarily affect two U.S. companies—the United Launch Alliance, a key launch provider for the U.S. Department of Defense (USDOD) and NASA, and Northrop Gruman, a firm that periodically sends cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Both companies rely on rocket engines made by NPOEnergomash to drive their vehicles to space.