{"id":10657,"date":"2022-02-25T17:15:53","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T09:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ula-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-wont-impact-remaining-atlas-5-missions\/"},"modified":"2022-02-25T17:15:53","modified_gmt":"2022-02-25T09:15:53","slug":"ula-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-wont-impact-remaining-atlas-5-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ula-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-wont-impact-remaining-atlas-5-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"ULA: Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine won\u2019t impact remaining Atlas 5 missions"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: <\/strong>Updated Feb. 28 with Dmitry Rogozin comments.<\/p>\n

\"\"
File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

United Launch Alliance said Friday that Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine will have no impact on the company\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket program, which has 25 missions left to fly with Russian-made main engines before retirement.<\/p>\n

The launch provider said it has all the Russian engines it needs before transitioning to a replacement rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, with U.S.-made engines produced by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos\u2019s space company.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we manage the transition to the Vulcan launch system, all necessary RD-180 engines to execute the Atlas 5 flyout are safely stored in our factory in Decatur, Alabama,\u201d said Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson. \u201cWe have agreements for technical support and spares, but if that support is not available, we will still be able to safely and successfully fly out our Atlas program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RD-180 engines were built by NPO Energomash of Khimki, Russia, a suburb of Moscow.<\/p>\n

An Atlas 5 rocket is scheduled for launch Tuesday from Cape Canaveral with a NOAA weather satellite, one of 25 missions remaining on the Atlas 5 schedule. ULA announced last year that all of the company\u2019s remaining Atlas 5 rockets have been sold to customers.<\/p>\n

Assembly and production of Atlas 5 rockets will continue at ULA\u2019s factory in Alabama for the next few years before winding down. ULA is building Vulcan Centaur rockets at the same location.<\/p>\n

ULA received its final shipment of RD-180 engines from Russia last year. The RD-180 is a dual-nozzle engine that powers the first stage of each Atlas 5 rocket, generating around 860,000 pounds of thrust at full throttle while guzzling kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Russian-made RD-180 engine powers an Atlas 5 rocket off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral with NASA\u2019s Lucy asteroid explorer. Credit: United Launch Alliance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ULA says the new Vulcan Centaur will have more lift capability, additional mission flexibility, and will be cheaper to operate than the existing Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rocket families. There are three Delta 4 rockets, which also have all U.S.-made engines, left to fly on ULA\u2019s schedule.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a breakdown of the remaining Atlas 5 missions:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nine commercial missions for Amazon\u2019s Kuiper internet network<\/p>\n

\u2022 Eight missions for Boeing\u2019s Starliner crew capsule<\/p>\n

\u2022 Four missions for the U.S. Space Force<\/p>\n

\u2022 Two missions with weather satellites for NASA and NOAA<\/p>\n

\u2022 One commercial mission for Viasat<\/p>\n

\u2022 One commercial mission for SES<\/p>\n

Tory Bruno, ULA\u2019s chief executive, tweeted Friday that he is confident the company can fly the remaining Atlas 5 missions even without technical expertise from Russian engineers. ULA also acquired additional RD-180 engines to use as spares.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accelerated the delivery of the last RD-180s,\u201d Bruno tweeted, adding that ULA engineers have \u201clots of experience\u201d with the RD-180 engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have personal experience in flying other people\u2019s rockets without their support, which informs my confidence,\u201d Bruno tweeted.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea in 2014 helped trigger a review of the the U.S. space industry\u2019s use of Russian components, expediting ULA\u2019s move away from the RD-180 engine.<\/p>\n

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia\u2019s space agency, seemed to confirm Monday that future Atlas 5 missions will launch without technical support from the RD-180\u2019s Russian manufacturer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, let\u2019s pray for our American friends!\u201d Rogozin tweeted.<\/p>\n

Bruno said ULA prefers to have a \u201cretainer\u201d agreement with NPO Energomash to \u201cask questions or do repairs, if that were to come up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, we have a lot of experience and expertise here, so we can do without if necessary,\u201d Bruno tweeted.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: Updated Feb. 28 with Dmitry Rogozin comments. File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket on its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now United Launch Alliance said Friday that Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine will have no impact on the company\u2019s Atlas 5 rocket program, which has 25 missions left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}