Roscosmos responds to EU and US sanctions

The state Corporation "Roscosmos" responded to the sanctions imposed by the West

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, responded to the US and European sanctions imposed on the state corporation after the start of the Russian special operation in the Donbass. So, Russia has already suspended rocket launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and will stop supplying engines to the United States.

The restrictive measures of the West were announced on February 24. According to US President Joe Biden, sanctions against rocket and space and other industries will block more than half of high-tech imports to Russia. The head of the United States added that the restrictions would reduce Moscow's ability to compete economically and deal a blow to the long-term strategic ambitions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following the American side, on February 25, the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions against Roscosmos, which, in particular, turned off one of the two telescopes of the Russian astrophysical observatory Spektr-RG. At the same time, the European Space Agency (ESA) recognized the unlikely joint launch of the ExoMars Mars mission with Russia.

The answer to Europe

In response to the freezing of cooperation between the European Union and Russia, Roscosmos suspended the launches of Russian Soyuz-2 rockets from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana. During the next launch of Soyuz-2, two satellites of the Galileo navigation system were to be launched from Kourou.

Later, the state corporation stated that if Russia does not receive guarantees on March 4 before 21:30 Moscow time that the British OneWeb spacecraft launched will not be used for military purposes by Europe and the United States, then the Soyuz-2 rocket installed on the launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome will be removed.

Roscosmos clarified that the refusal to launch will not cause damage to the state corporation, since the creation of Soyuz-2 missiles and Fregat upper stages has been paid for.

Subsequently, OneWeb shareholders decided to abandon the launch of their satellites from Baikonur, which were indeed planned to be partially used for military purposes.

Response to the States

The Russian response to the US sanctions was to stop the supply of rocket engines.

The head of Roscosmos called on the American side to now fly into space "on their brooms." In addition, Russia has severed cooperation with the United States on experiments on the International Space Station (ISS) and the Venus-D program.

Consequences of Russian sanctions for Europe

In 2022, it was planned to launch two Soyuz-2 launches with four satellites of the Galileo navigation system from Kuru. In 2023, ESA wanted to launch two Russian rockets - with the EarthCARE mission and with the Euclid infrared space telescope. In the same year, France planned to launch the Composante Spatiale Optique 3 (CSO-3) reconnaissance satellite on Soyuz-2.

Existing European carriers will not be able to replace the Russian rocket, because, for example, the Vega light rocket is not enough to launch two Galileo spacecraft, while the launches of the Ariane 5 heavy rocket, which is being decommissioned, have already been planned. The Ariane 6 carrier of two modifications, which will be able to replace Soyuz-2 and Ariane 5, will not be put into operation until at least 2023.

Consequences of Russian sanctions for the United States

Unlike Europe, the sanctions of Roscosmos have had virtually no effect on the United States.

Russia handed over the last RD-180 to the United States in April 2021. In total, 122 RD-180 commercial engines have been sent to the American side for more than 20 years.

According to Jessica Rai, a spokeswoman for the United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of the American companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing, the RD-180 engines of Atlas V heavy rockets purchased from Russia, which remained with the United States, are "securely stored" at the Decatur (Alabama) plant.

According to ULA Executive Director Tori Bruno, the company he heads has been using RD-180 for many years and does not depend on Energomash for technical support services. According to him, the United States went to buy the RD-180 from Russia because they wanted to avoid the leakage of missile technology to Iran or North Korea after the Cold War.

ULA currently has contracts for about 25 Atlas V launches through 2025. ULA plans to switch from an Atlas V rocket to a Vulcan with a BE-4 methane engine instead of a kerosene RD-180. The first Vulcan launch may take place this year, but it will certainly be postponed to 2023.

In addition to the RD-180, the Russian side supplies RD-181 engines to the United States for the Antares medium rocket, which is used to launch the Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the ISS. The Antares-Cygnus bundle can be relatively easily replaced by the reusable Falcon 9 heavy rocket and SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft.

What's next?

In an interview with the Russian Cosmos magazine, Rogozin stated that the sanctions regime introduced in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea to Russia was one of the reasons for the postponement of the launches of a number of Russian satellites in 2021.

According to him, in order to reduce dependence, the state corporation "formed a portfolio of orders for domestic microelectronics enterprises for priority components several years ago." Rogozin noted that the state corporation has started "using universal technological and circuit solutions", when, for example, instead of choosing "up to nine different onboard computers", "two or three universal computers" are involved.

After the introduction of sanctions due to the Russian special operation in the Donbass, the head of Roscosmos said that the state corporation will direct the resources released after the suspension of the participation of Western partners in joint projects with Russia to create defense systems.

Rogozin noted that the state corporation will reconsider its priorities and focus on achieving full import independence in space instrumentation.

Thus, at present, the ISS remains the only area of cooperation between the West and Russia in the field of cosmonautics, but even here a technical divorce is theoretically possible .