The license to produce Russia-built RD-180 rocket engines in the United States expires in 2030 when all technical documents are due to be destroyed, the CEO of the Russian booster-making company said.

RD-180 boosters are a key component of the US most powerful rocket, the Atlas V, which launched NASA's first asteroid sampling mission into space on Thursday night.

"The expiry date of the license agreement is 2030. There is still time, so we will continue cooperating with the US, supplying them with RD-180 engines produced by Energomash in Russia," the engineering firm's Director General Igor Arbuzov told RIA Novosti.

Arbuzov said Energomash expected engine deliveries to continue at a high rate in the coming years and partially into 2019. "I expect us to sign a raft of additional agreements to the existing contracts in the near future," he added.

Arbuzov estimated a total of 70 Atlas V rockets with Russian RD-180 boosters had been launched successfully so far.

Moscow, Beijing Considering Deliveries of RD-180 Rocket Engines to China
Moscow and Beijing are considering RD-180 rocket engines deliveries to China as part of broader cooperation in the field of aerospace, Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov said Tuesday.

"The possible delivery of RD-180 rocket engines is being considered by us and our Chinese partners as a constituent part of broader cooperation, for example, in the field of design of heavy rockets, cooperation in the filed of space stations, distant space missions," he told journalists.

Denisov stressed that aerospace was a very promising area and both Russia and China are interested in developing their cooperation in this area.

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that Moscow and Beijing were set to sign a deal on the protection of intellectual property in the field of rocket technologies during Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to China.

Source: Sputnik News