RD-180 test firing. (Credit: NASA)
Space News has an update on Congressional efforts to wean the U.S. off the Russian made RD-180 engine:
The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 4 passed the final version of a defense authorization bill that prohibits the future use of a Russian-built rocket engine that today is routinely used to launch U.S. national security satellites.
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015, recently finalized by House and Senate negotiators, also requires the Defense Department to replace the Russian engine, dubbed RD-180, with an American-made propulsion system by 2019.
The Senate is expected to pass the $577.1 billion bill early the week of Dec. 8, after which it will be sent to the White House to be signed into law by President Barack Obama.
The conference measure also narrows the scope of language, inserted into the Senate version of the bill by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), that barred the Pentagon from signing new contracts or renewing existing contracts with launch companies that rely on Russian suppliers.
The Defense Department had asked lawmakers to strike that provision from the bill during conference due to concern that it could immediately hamper its ability to launch satellites. ULA feared the bill would also ground its Delta 4 rocket, but the final agreement makes clear that is not the case.
The compromise legislation also allows for a waiver process for national security missions “if space launch services cannot be obtained at a fair and reasonable price without the use of the Russian RD-180 engines,” a summary of the compromise measure said.
Read the full story.
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