The West has been discussing various options for toughening sanctions against Russia for quite a long time due to the crisis in Ukraine. So far, only the United States has gone on to impose sanctions, which are not limited only to sanctions lists against officials and heads of state-owned companies. Apparently, the Malaysian Boeing incident will become a starting point for tougher sanctions from both the US and the EU. At present, the West, albeit indirectly, blames Russia for the tragedy that happened. At the same time, the rhetoric of the leaders of European countries is becoming increasingly harsh. On July 23, it was reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also in favor of tougher sanctions against Russia.
Against this background, disputes continue in Russia about how disastrous restrictive measures in certain sectors of the economy can be for our country and what consequences this may lead to. General Director of the United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC) Igor Komarov, speaking on this topic with Kommersant reporters, noted that if the United States refused to purchase Russian RD-180 rocket engines for Atlas V rockets, Energomash products could to be unclaimed in the domestic Russian market.
It is worth noting that this rocket engine was originally developed in our country specifically for the American Atlas missiles. According to Vladimir Solntsev, executive director of NPO Energomash, when the Americans realized that it was very expensive to solve all space missions using shuttles, they decided to create cheaper and simpler single-use missiles. So, for their new rocket Delta IV, they created the engine independently, but for the Atlas family of rockets they ordered an engine in NPO Energomash named after academician Glushko. A completely new engine, RD-180 with a thrust of 400 tons, was created at the Russian enterprise according to the issued terms of reference. This engine, along with Russian weapons, can be safely attributed to the samples of the most high-tech Russian exports.
The final choice in favor of the Russian rocket engine for the first stage of the Atlas V rocket was made following the results of the competition. The winner was the RD-180, which possessed the most advanced technical characteristics. The engines have proven their high reliability, as evidenced by 46 successful launches of the Atlas V rocket, the last of which took place on May 22, 2014. At one time, Energomash received all the necessary permits for interaction with American partners in the development of rocket technology.
At the same time, not so long ago, an American court imposed restrictions on the acquisition of these rocket engines. Igor Komarov told what reasons the court was guided by in making this decision. According to him, this was due not so much to the foreign policy situation in the world, the position of the State Department or sanctions against Russian officials, but to the position of the private American company SpaceX. Over the past few years, this company has managed to achieve significant success in space. A private company has sued Lockheed Martin Corporation and the US Air Force, accusing them of purchasing engines from the Russian company Energomash, and proceeds from their sale go to individuals included in the State Department's sanctions lists. At the same time, the head of the URKK explained that SpaceX meant Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.
Within a week, lawyers in court had to prove the fact that NPO Energomash is a state-owned company, and funds from the sale of its products cannot be received by individuals. As a result, on May 8, 2014, restrictions on the Russian company were completely removed. After that, the American partners expressed interest in further cooperation and purchase of Russian engines in the future. At the same time, Komarov noted that it is not worth excluding the political factor and its influence from these relations.
According to Komarov, due to the uncertain political situation and possible sanctions, some space projects are under threat. For example, the purchase of Zenit missiles from Yuzhmash from Dnepropetrovsk. These two-stage medium-class launch vehicles are produced in Ukraine, while 70% of the missile components are produced in Russia at NPO Energomash and RSC Energia. Igor Komarov noted that supplies from the Yuzhmash enterprise under previously concluded contracts continue to be carried out, as such there is no break in relations now. Komarov explained that the leader who is responsible for the implementation of these Russian-Ukrainian contracts must correctly assess their implementation in terms of possible risks. It is necessary to assess the future of this project in order to understand how our Ukrainian partners are able to fulfill their obligations.
In the context of possible sanctions, the management of the URCS is forced to revise the strategy of cooperation not only with Ukrainian enterprises, but also with all Russian foreign partners. According to Komarov, today not one or two countries are participating in cooperation - today not a single state completely produces all the necessary range of products for creating space products. “I believe that the geography of supplies that are currently coming from America will change in the next few years. And if the sanctions continue and increase, the geography of supplies will undergo serious changes. At the same time, not only our country is interested in the stable and normal implementation of existing projects,”said the head of the URCS. According to Igor Komarov, at present the Russian Federation has to develop a strategy of interaction with our partners, which would determine the work for 15-20 years ahead.
For example, at present more than 70% of all radiation-resistant elements of the electronic component base of domestic satellites are manufactured in America. After Washington adopted a ban on the supply of components to Russia, URCS immediately had to face a number of problems. Igor Komarov believes that in the short term, such bans can create certain problems for us, but now we are modifying a number of elements and solving the issue of import substitution in order to bring all already started projects to their logical conclusion. At the same time, in the long term, Russia will no longer have reasons to relax and hope that our foreign partners in the field of space exploration will continue to be ready to supply us with their products, and we can continue to ignore the need to develop innovative and key new technologies in our country. At the same time, Komarov did not specify where exactly Russia will currently purchase the necessary microcircuits.
The Ukrainian political crisis, which escalated into full-fledged hostilities in the east of the country, as well as the increased tension between Washington and Moscow, threaten the Russian-American cooperation in space, which was not interrupted earlier even during the Cold War. At the same time, many political decisions today are linked with the interests of space corporations from the United States, primarily with commercial interests. In particular, after the United States introduced a ban on the supply of American-made spacecraft to the Russian Federation, as well as those in which US-made components are used, some European projects were automatically banned. For example, the Turkish satellite Turksat 4B or Astra 2G is a telecommunications spacecraft of the Luxembourg company SAS.
Against this background, the statement of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin about the possibility of stopping the supply of RD-180 rocket engines for military launches forced the American Congressmen to send additional funds to create their own rocket engines. In addition, competition has intensified between SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance (ULA), which has an exclusive contract with the Pentagon to launch Atlas rockets. The rivalry resulted in the very same court decision banning the acquisition of Russian RD-180 engines, which, however, was withdrawn.
At the same time, the voiced Russian threat to refuse the delivery of Americans to the ISS using the Soyuz spacecraft most likely prompted the private company SpaceX to accelerate work on the Dragon V2 manned reusable spacecraft, which has already been presented to the general public. It is assumed that this device will be able to take over the functions of delivering American astronauts into orbit in 2016.
At present, it is the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that are the only available means of delivering astronauts to the ISS. In 2013, the United States and Russia signed a contract totaling $ 424 million. According to this contract, Roskosmos undertakes to deliver teams of 6 astronauts on board the ISS and back to Earth by June 2017. The previous contract, which was signed in 2011, cost the American side even more - more than $ 753 million. At the same time, the United States is simply not ready for its own means of delivering astronauts to the ISS.
A high-ranking source of the Kommersant newspaper in the Russian government does not exclude that, by imposing sanctions against our country, NASA expects to get the consent of Congress to increase the agency's funding. In 2015, $ 848 million should be allocated for the resumption of commercial launches, but after the announcement of the termination of cooperation with Russia, the agency expects to receive another $ 171 million. This is the amount that the US space agency's budget was cut by in fiscal 2014.
A competitor to the Russian Soyuz, the new Dragon V2 reusable transport ship, was recently officially announced by SpaceX. The novelty was presented personally by the head of the company Elon Musk. According to him, the new ship will be able to land anywhere on our planet with the accuracy of a conventional helicopter. At the same time, its capsule will be able to accommodate up to 7 astronauts, the device will be able to stay in orbit for several days. Musk also said that the SuperDraco engines used on it are capable of delivering 7.2 tons of thrust.
The Dragon V2 spacecraft is able to automatically dock to the ISS. He does not need to use a robotic arm, as was the case on the first Dragon spacecraft, which could not dock without it. That being said, the internals of the Dragon V2 are extremely simple and not cluttered with unnecessary hardware. On the walls of the device there are monitors with a large diagonal and a clear interface. The device is a development of its predecessor, which has already completed 3 flights to the ISS, starting in October 2012. Previously, NASA expected that the new model will fly in 2017 or 2018, but the situation in the world may accelerate these terms.
At the same time, the US State Department assures that they expect to maintain cooperation with Russia in the space sector, especially on the ISS project. “We have a long history of cooperation in space. And we hope that it will continue. We continue to cooperate in a number of areas now,”Jen Psaki noted in mid-May.
