Russia will ship yet another five RD- 180 rocket engines manufactured by the Glushko Energomash company to the U.S. by the end of 2000 on a contract with Pratt & Whitney.
The company’s press service says the engines have so far been delivered strictly on time. Two engines from the new batch are ready to be loaded and delivered early to the American customer.
Each container-packed RD-180 engine weighs about 13 tonnes. An Il- 76 transport plane, capable of flying two engines at a time, is to airlift the engines to the customer.
In 1996, Energomash won an international tender for the creation of an engine for the first stage of an American Atlas-3 rocket. Russia has supplied four RD-180 engines as part of the contract with Pratt & Whitney. The first was used to launch a U.S. rocket in May this year.
The engines are intended for commercial Atlas-3 launches. Meanwhile, preparatory work is under way on a program for using RD-180 engines in domestic launches. Energomash regards such work as lucrative, says a press release.
Energomash is also creating an engine for the first stage of a Zenit-3SL rocket booster under the international Sea Launch program. Russian specialists are designing an RD-191 engine for a series of Angara delivery vehicles. The engine is to be fire-tested at the end of the year.
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