Russia will stop supplying rocket engines to the US in retaliation for its sanctions over last week’s invasion of Ukraine. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said that “in a situation like this we cannot supply the United States with our engines. Let them fly with something else,” he said during an interview on Russian television.
According to Reuters and according to Rogozin, Russia has delivered a total of 122 Energomash RD-180 engines since the 1990s. Of these, 98 have been used to power Atlas launch vehicles, owned by United Launch Alliance.
Atlas, one of the longest-established rocket families in history, has launched several of the most iconic missions in recent decades, including New Horizons, which visited Pluto, and the test flight of Starliner, Boeing’s capsule designed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The last Atlas launch took the GOES-T satellite into space just a few days ago.
Roscosmos will also stop servicing engines already delivered and waiting to fly, Rogozin added. The US has 24 units of the RD-180 in storage that would now be left without Russian technical assistance. “Russia will focus on creating spacecraft that meet the needs of Roscosmos and the defense ministry,” he said.
