Roscosmos Says US Greenlit Import Of Russia's New Space Rocket Engines

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th July, 2021) The United States has approved the purchase of a new batch of the Russian-made RD-181M space rocket engines, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Vladimir Ustimenko, said on Tuesday.

"The US government has approved the contract between NPO Energomash [Roscosmos subsidiary] and US Orbital Sciences LLC company. This means that there will be new supplies of engines and new launches of American rockets with Russian 'hearts'," Ustimenko said on Telegram.

The deal gives hope for the possible normalization of relationship between the countries, where business and efficiency will play a more important role than momentary decisions, which are not related to cosmonautics, Ustimenko added.

The RD-181M engine is an export variant of the RD-191M used in Russian carrier rockets. The RD-181M is used in the first stages of the American Antares expendable launch systems aimed at transporting Cygnus cargo spaceships to the International Space Station.