After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and the United States have been engaged in extensive space cooperation, and the two sides have many cooperation projects in the field of the International Space Station. Moreover, the United States has also been buying launch vehicle engines from Russia, and the representative product of cooperation between the two sides is the RD-180 high-thrust liquid oxygen kerosene rocket engine.
However, with the recent outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine, Western countries led by the United States have joined the sanctions against Russia, and Russia naturally has to counter this. According to the latest reports in the Russian media, just a few days ago, the head of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Dmitry Rogozin, officially announced that Russia would stop delivering rocket engines to the United States.
As soon as the news came out, I am afraid that many people were very surprised: why did the United States still seek to buy rocket engines from Russia, and did the United States itself not have this technology? The answer is no, the fundamental reason why Americans do this is because of their own cost considerations.
After the end of the Cold War, the United States believed that it was invincible, so they gradually reduced their investment in this very expensive project, trying to pass on the cost of research and development to other countries, and there are certainly few countries in the world like Russia that can provide the United States with cheap and high-quality rocket engines, so Russia has naturally become the best choice.
However, with the passage of time, the United States' own launch vehicle engine technology is also developing, and Russia's current impact on the United States' supply of rocket engines will indeed have a certain impact, but the impact is very small. There are currently two U.S. launch vehicles using Russian rocket engines, the first is the United Launch Alliance's Cosmos 5, followed by Northrop Grumman's Antares, the former using the RD-180 already mentioned above, and the latter is an improved model RD-181.
For the latter, first of all, the rocket engine is to be imported from Russia, and the second stage of the launch vehicle is also assembled in Ukraine, and there are even reports that the assembly plant was destroyed in the war, but it has not yet been confirmed.
However, for the Cosmic God 5, the impact is not large, and the rocket is not long from being retired. And since the end of last year, the Joint Launch Alliance, which has sensed tensions between Russia and Ukraine, has been accelerating the import of rocket engines from Russia, and the stock is very sufficient to use the rocket for retirement.
It is therefore no exaggeration to say that Russia's influence on the supply of rocket engines to the United States is quite limited. And for a long time in the past, the technical level of Russian rocket engines has not seen a major breakthrough.
Whether it is the Soviet Union or Russia, the biggest advantage of their aero engines lies in kerosene generators and toxic fuels represented by partial dimethylhydrazine, the above-mentioned RD-180 series, as well as the RD-170 series, etc. are such engines, which are strong and durable, and the performance is relatively mature, if Russia continues to hold on to this series of engines, then at least it can be used for another 30 years.
But it has to be said that such engines have not kept up with the trend of the times, and most of the rocket engines used in the modern international community are based on more environmentally friendly and efficient hydrogen and methane as the main fuel. Russia is not without such engines, such as the RD-0120 and RD-701 series, but Russia still refuses to make changes on old rockets and on the latest generation of Angara series and Yenisei series launch vehicles.
This time after Russia cut off the supply of rocket engines to the United States, Musk and his SPACEX can be described as winning, SPACEX's various launch vehicles after years of development have been enough to undertake a variety of civilian and military space launch tasks, and even have the ability to carry manned spaceflight, just before the company announced the power of the engine, the company has just launched a Falcon-9 heavy launch vehicle.
The Pentagon and the White House are bound to entrust more research and development funds and launch tasks to SPACEX, and the company can completely produce rocket engines on its own, without relying on Russia at all. No wonder some people joke that Rogozin presumably bought Musk's stock.