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:
February 24, 2015

Last week main and back-up crews of ISS-43/44 mission started passing exams. The main crew comprises Roscosmos cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko and NASA…

full story
May 23, 2014

Rokot light booster  with a block of military satellites was launched from Plesetsk spaceport on Friday, –  representative of  Russian Ministry of Defenсe press-office management…

full story
July 18, 2024

The companies Gonets Satellite System (part of Roscosmos) and Geoscan conducted a joint experiment, during which they were the first in Russia to test the…

full story
June 13, 2019

Today, on June 13, 2019, a meeting of the State Commission was held at the Baikonur cosmodrome at which the results of the preparation of…

full story
July 27, 2020

At the Baikonur cosmodrome, continues work on preparations for the launch of the Proton-M carrier rocket with the Briz-M upper stage and the Russian Express-103…

full story
January 22, 2019

The training of cosmonauts and astronauts on the actions after landing in a wooded area in winter starts in Star City. According to legend, the…

full story
June 30, 2014

Angara-1.2 PP booster first test launch scheduled for 27 June, 2014 was shifted by 1 day out of technical reasons. But then it was reported…

full story
June 20, 2013

Water survival training on the basis of 179 Centre of Russian Federation Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Response (Moscow Region, Noginsk)  started on June…

full story