Article

2014-05-13 -Obits-

Russia Bans use of Russian rocket engines in US military launches (Atlas and ULA heads up)

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Posted by 3dc 2014-05-13 16:06|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 More Hope'nChange:
Russia to ban US from using Space Station over Ukraine sanctions

Posted by Uncle Phester 2014-05-13 16:19|| 2014-05-13 16:19|| Front Page Top

#2 Discussion thread on NasaSpaceFlight.com
here
Note what the old shuttle capcom Ed Kyle had to say

Also banning GPS in Russia, and ending ISS in 2020, according to the following story. I'll need to see this story reported by other news agencies though. If true, it is sobering.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3155391/posts

OK, ITAR-TASS reports that RD-180 (and NK-33) "may" be banned "if" they are used for "military purposes", whatever that means. There seems to be a background about GLONASS stations not being allowed in the U.S.
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/731443

Whatever the real story turns out to be, it seems quite clear that, given their use as a political lever, Russian rocket engines are no longer going to be part of long-term U.S. space planning - unless U.S. leadership is entirely asleep at the switch.

- Ed Kyle

Posted by 3dc 2014-05-13 16:22|| 2014-05-13 16:22|| Front Page Top

#3 Palin predicted Russia would invade Ukraine if Obama was elected. Liberals scoffed about that prediction.

With Obama not only did his Obamacare web sites crash, wait until you see what happens when he tries to be a rocket scientist.

Posted by Bubba Graiting8281 2014-05-13 16:23|| 2014-05-13 16:23|| Front Page Top

#4 This from a PW guy: For any NSF'ers who may be attending the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs next week, I'll issue an invitation to stop by the RD AMROSS booth (#1304 - in the pavillion) for face to face discussions related to the RD-180. Also joining me will be the RD AMROSS president and P&W RD-180 program manager. We'd be happy to talk to any and all comers.

Robert vanGiessen
P&W Chief Engineer, RD-180 Programs

Posted by 3dc 2014-05-13 17:21|| 2014-05-13 17:21|| Front Page Top

#5 Re: Rumors that Russia may block the export of RD-180 to the US
Ť Reply #237 on: Today at 06:38 PM ť
LikeQuote
Quote from: gommtu on Today at 06:23 PM
Rogazin - "Russia is ready to continue deliveries of RD-180 engines to the US only under the guarantee that they won't be used in the interests of the Pentagon."

Isn't it obvious? Don't buy your engines from Russian gangsters*. And that's exactly what anyone with decision making power is in the Putin regime. You can't stick your head in the sand and pretend that's not the reality.

Can you imagine Bolden going on his twitter account threatening Russian space projects? Or joking about abandoning Russian cosmonauts on the space station? It's inconceivable for so many reasons. These guys are thugs.

*I'm sure most of the Roscosmos engineers are genuinely good people and are not thugs, but clearly the people in charge are.

It shouldn't take a twitter posting to figure out an ex-KGB agent and his associates are thugs. As for Russia breaching contract, if there is one, on RD-180 delivery:

Quote
The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances is a political agreement signed in Budapest, Hungary on 5 December 1994, providing security assurances by its signatories relating to Ukraine's accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents.[1]

The memorandum included security assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine as well as those of Belarus and Kazakhstan. As a result Ukraine gave up the world's third largest nuclear weapons stockpile between 1994 and 1996.[2][3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Memorandum_on_Security_Assurances

Pieces of paper won't insure the supply of engines.

Posted by 3dc 2014-05-13 17:25|| 2014-05-13 17:25|| Front Page Top

#6 Quote from: jcm on Today at 08:15 PM
Quote from: edkyle99 on Today at 04:49 PM

If such guarantees arent provided the Russian side will also be unable to perform routine maintenance for the engines, which have been previously delivered to the US, he added."

- Ed Kyle

I looked at the original Russian transcript at http://government.ru/vice_news/12361
and this sentence leapt out at me.
Does anyone know what role Energomash employees have post delivery of the engines? The implication of this sentence is that
it may not matter that we have a stock of them if we still need the Russians to service them prior to launch.

Can someone from ULA state for the record that all two years of warehoused engines are ready to fly without any additional 'spare parts' or 'routine maintenance' or Energomash support whatever? We've heard various (indirect) comments from ULA (impact to planned launches) and now Russia that there are ongoing needs that Energomash is fulfilling.

It would also be good to hear what level of the full 36 core block buy ULA is capable of supporting with the Delta IV (launch rate-wise and financially, since the launches are more costly than Atlas V with Russian engines).

Posted by 3dc 2014-05-13 17:57|| 2014-05-13 17:57|| Front Page Top

#7 Does the Soyuz still contain several guns?

Posted by 3dc 2014-05-13 18:25|| 2014-05-13 18:25|| Front Page Top

#8 This is just another example of the O admin playing to the media for political points without thinking through the possible consequences of said action. The level of incompetence and evil of this admin boggles the mind of a rational person.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2014-05-13 19:33|| 2014-05-13 19:33|| Front Page Top

#9 Whatever the real story turns out to be, it seems quite clear that, given their use as a political lever, Russian rocket engines are no longer going to be part of long-term U.S. space planning - unless U.S. leadership is entirely asleep at the switch.

Aye, there's the rub.

Posted by charger 2014-05-13 19:45|| 2014-05-13 19:45|| Front Page Top

#10 This is just another example of the O admin playing to the media for political points without thinking through the possible consequences of said action. The level of incompetence and evil of this admin boggles the mind of a rational person.

The Clinton administration and the 2nd Bush administration both had a hand in creating this crisis by pretending Russia wasn't going to be, well, Russia, and by keeping only token efforts at RLV development funded. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has not only developed an ELV for less than NASA spent on the shuttle in one year, he's making progress in turning it into an RLV.

And he isn't doing anything NASA couldn't have done _if they'd wanted to_.

Posted by Thing From Snowy Mountain 2014-05-13 20:20|| 2014-05-13 20:20|| Front Page Top

#11 Time for Lockheed-Martin to make an investment in SpaceX....

Posted by Squinty 2014-05-13 20:38|| 2014-05-13 20:38|| Front Page Top

#12 And he isn't doing anything NASA couldn't have done _if they'd wanted to_

What, and take time away from the agency's vital Muslim outreach efforts?

Priorities, people...

Posted by charger 2014-05-13 21:12|| 2014-05-13 21:12|| Front Page Top

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