Russia to supply US with six RD-180 rocket engines this year

Russian rocket engine manufacturer NPO Energomash plans to ship six RD-180 rocket engines to the United States this year, government procurement website data shows.

The RD-180 engines will be used to power the first stage of the Atlas V launch vehicles.

In December, Energomash said that it shipped a total of six RD-180 rocket engines to the United States in 2019.

In October, Roscosmos subsidiary Energomash was preparing to deliver three more RD-180 engines for use with Atlas V launch vehicles. Previously, Energomash already shipped three RD-180 rocket engines to the US in June as part of a separate contract.

Since 1999, Lockheed Martin Atlas III and Atlas V launch vehicles have made at least 86 flights using the RD-180. According to Energomash figures, the US has now received 116 such engines.

The RD-180 is a derivative of the RD-170/171 series of rocket engines, created for the super-heavy Energiya launch vehicle, which could shuttle up to 100 tonnes of cargo into Low Earth orbit, and which was used to launch the Buran shuttle into space.

In the late 1980s, this rocket was envisioned as the launch vehicle which would send up new space stations into orbit to succeed the Mir and to prepare for missions to the Moon and Mars.

Source: RIA Novosti

Related Links
NPO Energomash
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Aerospike rocket engines are more efficient than classic ones
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 22, 2020
On December 20th, 2019 ARCA started the tests for its advanced aerospike engine LAS 25DA, for the water-based, electric Launch Assist System (LAS) rocket. After reading the test data from the sensors for both classic and aerospike rocket engines, we clearly saw that the aerospike rocket engines are more efficient than the classic ones. The tested aerospike engine has a dry weight of 184kg (405lbs) and it's rated to 25 metric tons of thrust. It is currently the world largest, being shy of onl ... read more