U.S. may use Russian engine in new rocket for manned missions - Energomash
MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia's NPO Energomash is adapting the RD-180 engine supplied to the United States for launching manned spaceships, Energomash Executive Director Vladimir Solntsev told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
"The RD-180 engine is being adapted for manned missions," he said.
RD-180 is a derivative of RD-170 built for the Energia-Buran manned spaceship, Solntsev recalled.
"The engine adaptation work started in early 2012," he said
The U.S. has no manned spaceships now that the Space Shuttle program is over.
Russia's RD-180 engine won the U.S. tender in the middle of the 1990s. It defeated two U.S. and one European companies. RD-180 is a derivative of RD-170 used in Energia and Zenit launch vehicles. RD-170 is a four-chamber engine, and RD-180 has only two combustion chambers and a new turbo-pump of a lesser capacity powered with one gas generator. RD-180 has a thrust of 400 tonnes.
The agreement with Lockheed Martin stipulates the delivery of 101 RD-180 engines built by Energomash for U.S. Atlas rockets.
Energomash fully assembles RD-180 engines. Combustion chambers are supplied from Samara and special steels from Chelyabinsk. It takes an average of 16 months to assemble one engine.
The first serial engine RD-180 was supplied to the United States on January 2, 1999.