January 16, 2015

Russian rocket producer Energiya has signed a $1 billion contract with US Orbital Sciences Corporation for the delivery of 60 RD-181 engines, the company’s press service said Friday in a statement.

“Energia President Vladimir Solntsev and Orbital Sciences Corporation General Director David Thompson signed a direct contract worth around $1 billion on the delivery to the United States of engines produced by Energomash [a subsidiary of Energia],” the statement says.

According to the press release, the contract also includes a provision on a range of services including flight training, installation of the engine on the rocket and engine tests. The contract, that took Energia three years to prepare, envisages cooperation to last 15 to 25 years, according to Solntsev.

The first two engines, which are used on carrier rockets to deliver cargoes to the International Space Station, will be delivered in June 2015.

Orbital said in December that they looked at several other propulsion providers, but decided to use the RD-181 engines because the Russia-designed engine offered “the best combination of schedule availability, technical performance and cost parameters as compared to other possible options.”

This is the second large-scale deal Energomash has made with a US company. In the late 1990s, the company won a contract with United Launch Alliance to supply RD-180 engines for Atlas rockets. This contract, also valued at about $1 billion, is still functional.

In October, the Antares rocket, which was supposed to deliver over two tons of cargo to the ISS, exploded six seconds after launch from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

More from this category:
November 13, 2024

The popular science festival “VNauke”, organized by VK and dedicated to space and the future of mankind, started at VDNKh in Moscow. Russian cosmonaut and…

full story
February 25, 2021

On February 25, 2021, Roscosmos enterprises’ crews began working according to the L-3 days schedule. In accordance with the State Commission decision, the Soyuz-2.1b launch…

full story
April 20, 2015

Progress Rocket and Space Centre started assembling Soyuz-2.1a  that is to be the first booster launched from new Russian spaceport Vostochny in Amur region. The…

full story
February 18, 2014

RIA Novosti – The head of Russia’s Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan has quit, a spokesperson for the country’s Federal Space Agency said Tuesday. Yevgeny…

full story
July 29, 2019

On July 28, 2019, the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle with the “Progress MS-12” cargo spaceship was removed from the Assembly and Testing building and installed at…

full story
February 1, 2016

On Saturday Proton-M booster and Briz-M upper stage successfully orbited Eutelsat 9B satellite. The launch was initially scheduled for for January 28, but was shifted…

full story
May 27, 2013

The launch of Angara light rocket from Vostochny cosmodrome will take place in 2015, – vice Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said at the meeting with…

full story
April 12, 2020

On the 12th of April 1961 an extraordinary event occurred that has changed the world – the first ever human spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin laid…

full story