Many people know the funny lyrics of "Harry Potter flying on a broomstick", but on March 3, 2022, Russian Space Director Dmitry Rogozin announced that the Supply of Russian rocket engines RD-180 to the United States was cut off, and humorously said: Let them fly with something else, such as their broom.
Without the rocket engine RD-180, does it mean that the US rockets cannot be launched, the US satellites cannot be launched, and the American astronauts on the International Space Station cannot return? Will Americans cry? In fact, smart Americans have long expected such a day and begun to prepare with both hands, but they have not succeeded so far.
How strong is the RD-180, and why was it taken in by the United States in the first place?
Speaking of rocket engines, the former Soviet Union is indeed a world leader, in the 80s of the last century, the development of a high-thrust RD-170/RD-171 series of rocket engines, RD-170 engines have four combustion chambers, net weight of 9750 kg, with oxygen-kerosene as fuel.
The RD-170 has a maximum thrust of 7,887 kN and about 750 tons of thrust, and the maximum thrust of the most famous SpaceX Raptor engine is only 230 tons.
The RD-170 consumes fuel at an astonishingly fast rate, consuming about 2.6 tons of fuel per second, and can consume hundreds of tons of fuel in a few minutes, of course, the carrying capacity is also amazing, with a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 100 tons, a ground-moon transfer orbit carrying capacity of 32 tons, and a solar orbit carrying capacity of 20 tons, which is worthy of being the most powerful rocket engine in the world.
The RD-180 rocket engine is derived from the RD-170, is a scaled-down version of the RD-170, net weight 5480 kg, designed and manufactured by Russia, successfully flew in 2000, using double nozzle, double combustion chamber design, the use of liquid oxygen - kerosene as a propellant, the maximum thrust up to 390 tons.
The RD-180 was originally used on four bundled boosters for the Energia super-heavy launch vehicle, the Energia rocket could even be used to launch the Blizzard Space Shuttle, and the RD-180 could also be used on the Ukrainian Zenit rocket, a medium-sized thrust rocket left to Ukraine by the former Soviet Union, with a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 14 tons.
NASA at a glance caught the RD-180's superior performance, strong thrust and high reliability, as evidenced by dozens of subsequent launches, zero accident rate, NASA used the RD-180 engine on the first stage of the Atlas V and Atlas III launch vehicles.
In 2014, the United States purchased 122 RD-180s for $23.4 million each, and it wasn't until April 14, 2021, that Russia delivered them.
The United States expected such a day, but it has not yet succeeded
The U.S. Atlas V carrier rocket is mainly used to launch space probes, space shuttles, satellites, such as the X-37 military space shuttle, perseverance rover, InSight Mars rover, NRO reconnaissance satellites, etc. are launched with atlas V carrier rockets.
From 2014 to 2022, the U.S. Atlas V carrier rocket launched a total of 49 times, and by March 2022, the United States still has 24 RD-180 rocket engines left on hand, which looks very tight, and if there is no new engine replenishment, it may be used up by 2023.
As early as 2014, on the Ukrainian Crimea issue, the United States made a bad eye and stood against Russia, at this time the United States had long expected that there would be such a day: the Russian RD-180 engine would be out of supply, so it began to study new rocket engines.
In September 2014, the United States announced a partnership with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to develop the BE-4 LOX/methane engine, and in March 2016, the United States partnered with AJR to develop the AR1 hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engine, which the United States hopes will replace the RD-180 rocket engine by 2022.
The BE-4 LOX/methane engine has a thrust of approximately 240 tons and is scheduled for delivery in August 2021, with Blue Origin's promise of delivery on time. At the same time, the United States announced that the Atlas V carrier rocket was about to be retired, and later used the newly developed Vulcan Centaur carrier rocket (BE-4 LOX/methane engine).
However, the development of BE-4 LOX/methane engines has been in trouble, the test results are not ideal, there are turbopump shortages, combustion instability, overheating and short engine life and other related problems, it seems that the BE-4 LOX / methane engine will wait until 2022 delivery at the earliest.
The AR1 hydrocarbon rocket engine will certainly not be counted on in a short period of time, although although the United States promised to provide $295 million in research funds to the "AR1 hydrocarbon fuel rocket engine", but the research and development has been delayed again and again, and there has not been a shape so far.
At last
Although the United States has been making two-handed preparations since 2014, the money has been spent a lot, but unfortunately it has not yet succeeded, if the BE-4 LOX / methane engine can not be successfully tested in 2022, Russia cut off the supply of RD-180 rocket engines, then the United States is likely to really be out of stock.
But the United States will not cry, because the United States also has a killer, Musk's SpaceX company, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has amazing carrying capacity, launching ordinary satellites that is no problem at all.
In addition, SpaceX built the Cargo Dragon spacecraft and the Manned Dragon spacecraft, which undertook the transportation of materials and astronauts to and from the International Space Station, so we do not have to doubt the problem that American astronauts cannot return. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration