Moscow. December, 31st. INTERFAX - The United States carried out six launches of space rockets with Russian-made engines in 2021, Roscosmos reported on Friday.
"In 2021, RD-180 engines provided four launches of American Atlas-5 launch vehicles, and RD-181 - two launches of American Antares launch vehicles," the state corporation said in a statement dedicated to the results of the work of NPO Energomash in 2021.
Roscosmos stated that liquid rocket engines developed and manufactured by NPO Energomash for 12 months of 2021 were used in 24 out of 25 Russian space orbital launches on Soyuz-2, Proton-M and Angara launch vehicles.
"All launches are successful. In total, 130 engines developed and manufactured by NPO Energomash were successfully tested in 30 launches," the report says.
On September 4, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the United States has a sufficient supply of Russian RD-180 rocket engines, but they plan to continue purchasing the RD-181 model.
"They bought everything (RD-180 - IF) that they wanted. They have 29 engines lying, sold by us... But we supply not only RD-180, we also supply RD-181. And the United States is extremely interested in continuing supplies," Rogozin said then on the air of the Solovyov Live YouTube channel.
On August 24, Rogozin told Interfax that negotiations on a new contract for the supply of engines to the United States were going constructively. "There is a government decision, everything is going in the usual routine mode," he said.
"They concern, first of all, RD-181M engines, this is an export version of the engine that we are installing on Angara. It is used for the Antares rocket, there are great prospects here, I think that the contracts will continue," Rogozin said at the time.
Earlier, the Russian government supported negotiations on the conclusion of a contract for the supply of Russian RD-181M engines manufactured by NPO Energomash to an American company. The corresponding decree of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin was published on the portal of legal information.
It was reported that Energomash planned to transfer at least 10 RD-180/RD-181 rocket engines to the United States in 2021.
As Maxim Ovchinnikov, the first deputy director of Roscosmos for economics and Finance, reported in an interview with Interfax, the supply of engines to the United States brings Energomash about a third of revenue - about 10-12 billion rubles a year.
RD-180 engines are used by the United Launch Alliance in the Atlas-5 launch vehicle. Another American company, Orbital ATK, supplies RD-181 engines. They are used in Antares rockets, with the help of which Cygnus cargo ships are sent to the International Space Station.
