Boeing and Lockheed Martin no longer need Russian RD-180 rocket engines, which were used in the first stage of Atlas V missiles (Atlas-5) when launching carriers into orbit. The abandonment mood of the Americans has been known for a long time.: after combining the resources of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, corporations focused on a new joint project United Launch Alliance (ULA).
By the forces of the alliance, according to the sources of the online publication "ArsTechnica", work is underway to create a Vulcan rocket: this heavy carrier will replace the current generation of orbital tractors at launch sites. Young, but ambitious, ULA has already managed to declare itself in daring competition with the leading market players and even pressed SpaceX company: in particular, from 2022 year and ULA, and Elon Musk's company shared the performance of a five-year Pentagon contract to launch military satellites.
As for the RD-180 engines, purchased in Russia preventively, then they will not "rust" in NASA warehouses. Each Russian unit will be installed in the remaining Atlas ships for launches according to the planned schedule.
Until the completion of the project - a few more years: during this time, the last 29 starts "Atlas". The final batch of six contract RD-180s manufactured by the Russian NPO Energomash was ordered for shipment to the USA in April 2020 of the year.
Author:Nikolay Stalnov
used photos:Official website of the NGO “Energomash” engine.space
