The United States has been launching rockets into space on Russian engines for 40 years: now they have finally abandoned them

It took the US military decades to get rid of the US military's dependence on the Russian RD-180 engine. United Launch Alliance delivered classified U.S. military payload into orbit on July 30 for the last time using an Atlas V rocket, marking the end of the Pentagon's use of Russian rocket engines. Now national security missions have completely switched to American launchers, writes a scientific observer for the publication Ars Technica Stephen Clark.

Photo: IStock

The Atlas V rocket departed Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 30:6 a.m. Eastern Time (45:10 UTC) on July 45. The rocket was equipped with a Russian-made RD-180 engine and five mounted solid fuel boosters. It was the 101st Atlas V rocket launch since its debut in 2002, the 58th since 2007, and the last Atlas V mission carrying payload of U.S. national security interest.

The US Space Force Command on July 30 confirmed the successful completion of the mission, codenamed USSF-51. The Centaur rocket's upper stage dropped its top-secret USSF-51 payload about seven hours after liftoff, likely in high-altitude geostationary orbit above the equator. The military has not released precise specifications for the missile's target orbit.

“A fantastic launch and honorable completion of the Atlas V missions for national security,” said Walt Lauderdale, USSF-51 mission director at Space Systems Command. “When we look back and see how well Atlas V has served our needs since its launch in 2007, it is a testament to the hard work and dedication of those who built our nation's space industry. Thanks to our teams of professionals, we have the most successful and thriving rocket launch industry in the world.”

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Long farewell to RD-180

The July 30 launch capped the end of an era born in the 1990s, when U.S. government policy allowed Lockheed Martin, the original developer of the Atlas V, to use Russian rocket engines. In the first decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was widespread agreement that the United States and other Western countries should work with Russia to prevent highly skilled space workers from being recruited by "rogue states" such as Iran or North Korea.

At the time, the Pentagon was purchasing new missiles to replace aging versions of the Atlas, Delta and Titan families of missiles that had been in service since the late 1950s or early 1960s.

The Air Force ultimately selected Lockheed Martin's Atlas V and Boeing's Delta IV missiles for development in 1998. The Atlas V, with a Russian main engine, was somewhat cheaper than the Delta IV and the more successful of the two projects. Following its July 30 launch, 15 more Atlas V rockets are booked to deliver cargo to commercial customers and NASA, primarily for Amazon's Kuiper network and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. The 45th and final launch of Delta IV took place in April.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin merged their rocket divisions in 2006 to form a joint venture called United Launch Alliance, which became the only contractor certified to launch large U.S. military satellites into orbit until SpaceX began launching national security missions in 2018.

SpaceX filed a lawsuit in 2014 protesting the Air Force's decision to award ULA a multibillion-dollar contract to supply 36 Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicle cores. The trial began shortly after Russia's military occupation and annexation of Crimea, which led to U.S. government sanctions on prominent Russian government officials, including Dmitry Rogozin, then Russia's deputy prime minister and later head of the Russian space agency.

Rogozin, known for his bellicose but empty rhetoric, threatened to stop exporting RD-180 engines for American military missions on the Atlas V. This did not happen immediately. Russia finally stopped exporting engines to the US in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At that time, ULA already had all the necessary engines to launch all of its remaining Atlas V rockets. This export ban had a greater impact on Northrop Grumman's Antares rocket, which also used Russian engines, forcing it to develop an entirely new first stage booster with American ones. engines.

The SpaceX lawsuit, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and subsequent sanctions marked the beginning of the end for the Atlas V rocket and ULA's use of the RD-180 engine made by the Russian company NPO Energomash.

Energomash, bringing the total number of deliveries to 122 engines, exported the last batch of RD-180 to the USA in 2021. In the initial bulk order, this engine cost approximately $10 million per unit. Energomash manufactured several more RD-180s for ground testing in Russia. They were never sent to the USA. Six RD-180 engines flew on Lockheed Martin's Atlas III rocket, which was retired in 2005, and the rest carried the Atlas V into space.

The RD-180 engine, running on kerosene and liquid oxygen, has never failed during the launch of American military missiles. The only downside in flight history was a relatively small drop in performance during the Atlas V's commercial launch in 2016. ULA has 15 more RD-180 engines available to cover the remaining Atlas V mission backlog, which will likely stretch into 2030.

American Engine Era

With the US military's dependence on Russian rocket engines no longer politically viable and SpaceX willing to launch military satellites at a lower cost with an all-American, partly reusable rocket, ULA announced in 2015 the development of a new launch vehicle called Vulcan. In that year's National Defense Authorization Act, Congress required the Air Force to abandon the RD-180 engine. The Pentagon has undertaken to finance the development of new American rocket engines.

Meanwhile, SpaceX began winning deals to launch GPS navigation satellites, spy platforms and other cargo important to national security. In 2020, the Pentagon announced funding for dozens of launches for ULA with its new Vulcan rocket and for SpaceX with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launchers.

But the Vulcan rocket's maiden launch has been delayed by several years, largely due to delays with its BE-4 main engine made by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space company. This led the Space Force, which took over launch contracts from the Air Force, to award more contracts to SpaceX than originally planned. The mission, known as USSF-51, launched on July 30 and was moved from a Vulcan rocket to an Atlas V due to Vulcan delays.

“The Atlas family of rockets has played a key role in advancing national security and superiority in space since the 1950s,” ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno said in a statement. “We look forward to continued collaboration with the U.S. Space Force as we launch future missions for our national security partners aboard the Vulcan rocket.”

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The test launch of the Vulcan rocket successfully took place on January 8. The second such flight is scheduled for mid-September. If it goes as well as the first one, the Space Force could certify the Vulcan rocket to send actual military payloads by the end of this year. Meanwhile, Blue Origin is nearing the finish line of development of its New Glenn heavy rocket, which it plans to fly for the first time later this year. Once Blue Origin has a string of successful New Glenn launches, it will be able to compete with ULA and SpaceX for at least some national security launch contracts.

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