The CEO of the United Rocket and Space Corporation, Yuri Vlasov, said on Friday that deliveries of Russian rocket engines to the United States could continue until 2025.
“Today we understand well that we’ll continue delivering American and European astronauts to the ISS [the International Space Station] in the next few years. And we understand well that the delivery of Russian rocket engines [RD-180] for Atlas carrier rockets will be inevitable somewhere until 2024-2025, in our mind, although we have a contract till 2018,” the CEO said at a session of the State Duma’s expert council for the rocket and space industry, reported Russian state news agency TASS.
The United States signed a contract in 1997 for 101 engines from Russian manufacturers but Congress overruled the deal as relations with Russia soured for deliveries after 2019. However, when it became clear that the U.S. could not produce such engines, Congress relaxed the ban for several years.
Russia has supplied engines for the Atlas and Anteres rockets for deployments to the International Space Station (ISS) and other missions.
