Russia threaten's to stop RD-180 and NK-33 Rocket Engine sales To U.S.

RD-180 Rocket Engine Russia has threatned to halt the sale of RD-180 and NK-33 rocket engines to U.S. for use in any defense related spa...

RD-180 Rocket Engine

Russia has threatned to halt the sale of RD-180 and NK-33 rocket engines to U.S. for use in any defense related space programs in retaliation to U.S. sanctions targeting key Russian personnels and ban on high-tech exports to Russia following tensions over Russian annexation of Crimea.

ATLAS V Launch Vehicle

Dimitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, who oversees Russia’s space and defense industries, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in March, said in his twitter account @DRogozin

"Russia is ready to continue deliveries of RD-180 engines to the US only under the guarantee that they won't be used in the interests of the Pentagon".

He also said Russia would reject a U.S. request to continue use of International Space Station beyond 2020.

The RD-180 is the main engine and first stage of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, while a modified and refurbished version of the NK-33 – the Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-26 provides core propulsion on the first stage of the Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares launch vehicle.
ULA said it has enough Russian engines in U.S. soil under storage to meet its commitment with U.S. Air Force to launch U.S. national security payloads.

RD-180 delivers more than 860,000 lbs of massive thrust at lift off. Designed and manufactured by NPO Energomash, the liquid oxygen/liquid kerosene, two-thrust-chamber RD-180 engine is a complete propulsion unit equipped with hydraulics for control valve actuation and thrust vector gimbaling, pneumatics for valve actuation and system purging, and a thrust frame to distribute loads.

NK-33 is a legendary Russian engine designed and built in the late 1960s by the Kuznetsov Design Bureau to carry Soviet cosmonauts to the Moon onboard the giant N1 rocket.