Russia hands over last rocket engines to ULA
In a ceremony in Russia yesterday, Roscosmos’s Energomash division completed and handed over ownership to ULA six RD-180 engines, to be used in ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket.
These are the last such engines required as part of the contract. They will also likely be the last Russian engines ULA will ever buy. The company is retiring its Atlas 5 rocket, which requires them, and replacing it with its Vulcan rocket, which will instead use Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine.
Furthermore, as of September 1st, 2021 such commercial space contracts with Russia will be difficult to obtain because of new sanctions imposed on Russia by the Biden administration.
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In a ceremony in Russia yesterday, Roscosmos’s Energomash division completed and handed over ownership to ULA six RD-180 engines, to be used in ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket.
These are the last such engines required as part of the contract. They will also likely be the last Russian engines ULA will ever buy. The company is retiring its Atlas 5 rocket, which requires them, and replacing it with its Vulcan rocket, which will instead use Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine.
Furthermore, as of September 1st, 2021 such commercial space contracts with Russia will be difficult to obtain because of new sanctions imposed on Russia by the Biden administration.
Please consider donating to Behind the Black, by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below. Your support will allow me to continue covering science and culture as I have for the past twenty years, independent and free from any outside influence.
Your support is even more essential to me because I keep this site free from advertisements and do not participate in corrupt social media companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook. I depend wholly on the direct support of my readers.
You can provide that support to Behind The Black with a contribution via Patreon or PayPal. To use Patreon, go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. For PayPal click one of the following buttons:
If Patreon or Paypal don't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
I hope you will not take this as a completely inappropriate take-over of your posted subject. But a review of a Russian movie called Spacewalker (2017) was posted today- the movie was released on blu-ray on January 2021 and is available at Amazon for $16.
Here’s the opening paragraph from Glenn Erickson’s review–
CineSavant
Spacewalker
by Glenn Erickson APR 17, 2021
Dmitriy Kiselev’s overlooked Russian thriller is an exciting and inspirational true account of the first walk in space by a Soviet cosmonaut — a mission that nearly became a tragedy. It’s almost as emotional an experience as Apollo 13 — the worthy cosmonauts demonstrate ‘the right stuff’ under much more trying conditions. The beautifully produced and splendidly acted show makes it seem a crime that foreign movies this good are routinely denied theatrical exhibition here. The Blu-ray comes with an excellent pair of featurettes, with the participation of the original spacewalker Alexey Leonov.
https://trailersfromhell.com/spacewalker/
Has anyone seen this movie? I ‘ve read Erickson’s reviews for many years and will purchase this on Glenn’s word.
This could force ULA to human rate Vulcan (in order to launch Starliners) more quickly than they had planned.
Last I read, ULA had planned to keep Atlas V around just for Starliner launches, at least well into the 2020’s.
Mark McSherry, my wife and I watched Spacewalker a month or so ago. Excellent movie. It is on Youtube.
Thanks for the heads up. I wish they had went with an American build RD-170 with four chambers instead of just the two.
Thanks Mike! The blu-ray arrives Tuesday and, going by your comments, I’m now sure the $16 is well-spent.
Thanks Mark for the movie. I watched it and loved it.
Haven’t seen the movie yet, but will do so soon. I have seen the trailer and I would say it looks even more like a Russian version of The Right Stuff than it does Apollo 13, though there is certainly some of that in there too.