Fwd: NASA Says Not Informed About Russia Suspending Cooperation on ISS

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: May 14, 2014 1:46:25 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: NASA Says Not Informed About Russia Suspending Cooperation on ISS

 

No Russian-built RD-180 engines to launch U.S. spy satellites, NASA planetary probes and other high-priority payloads. 

 

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NASA Says Not Informed About Russia Suspending Cooperation on ISS

MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The US space agency has not been officially notified by Russia on changes to the countries' cooperation in space, including the International Space Station (ISS) program, a NASA spokesperson has said.

"Ongoing operations on the ISS continue on a normal basis with a planned return of crew tonight and expected launch of a new crew in the next few weeks," a NASA spokesperson said in a statement. "We have not received any official notification from the government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point."

NASA said space cooperation has been a "hallmark of US-Russia relations," including during the Cold War, and most notably, in the past 13 years of continuous human presence onboard the ISS.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told journalists Tuesday Russia could stop delivering RD-180 and NK-33 rocket engines to Washington in response to US sanctions. He said Moscow has no plans to use the ISS after 2020.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier the United States seeks to continue cooperation in space with Russia, including on the ISS program.

The US space agency announced in early April that amid tensions over Ukraine it would halt cooperation with Russia but will continue working together on the ISS and participate in joint meetings at international events in third countries.

© 2014 RIA Novosti

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Rogozin threatens engine restrictions, ISS lifetime extension

By WILLIAM HARWOOD
CBS News

Russian-built RD-180 engines that power the first stage of United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket, used to launch U.S. spy satellites, NASA planetary probes and other high-priority payloads, will no longer be sold for use in U.S. military missions, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's deputy prime minister for space and defense, said Tuesday.

In an apparent response to U.S. and European sanctions imposed in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea, Rogozin, who is on the U.S. sanctions list, also said Russia has not yet agreed with the Obama administration's decision to operate the International Space Station through at least 2024.

He said any decision to operate the station beyond the previously agreed-on target of 2020 would depend on a cost-benefit analysis, implying extended operations might not be approved. The space station requires both major partners for normal operations and if Russia decided to pull out in 2020, NASA would have little choice but to follow suit.

"We currently project that we'll require the ISS until 2020," he said in comments published by the Interfax news agency. "We need to understand how much profit we're making by using the station, calculate all the expenses and depending on the results decide what to do next."

Turning his attention to other programs, Rogozin said Russia will consider halting operations at 11 ground stations in Russia that are used by U.S. Global Positioning System navigation satellites by Sept. 1 if the United States does not allow similar Russian ground stations on American soil.

In a brief statement, NASA noted a long history of joint U.S.-Russian space endeavors and said "ongoing operations on the ISS continue on a normal basis" with the planned landing of three station fliers Tuesday night aboard a Russian Soyuz ferry craft and launch of three fresh crew members aboard a Russian rocket later this month.

"We have not received any official notification from the Government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point," the U.S. space agency said.

United Launch alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, sells Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets to the Air Force and NASA for a wide variety of payloads ranging from high-priority national security satellites to NASA planetary probes.

The Delta 4, designed by Boeing, uses engines built in the United States while Lockheed Martin's Atlas 5 relies on the RD-180 for first stage propulsion. The engines are built by NPO Energomash and sold to ULA by AD AMROSS, a partnership between Energomash and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.

ULA's use of the RD-180 in a rocket used to launch critical national security payloads has come under fire in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea and the crisis in Ukraine.

The Air Force has implemented a study to determine the impact on downstream flights if the supply chain is interrupted and SpaceX, which hopes to compete with ULA for lucrative launch contracts, has filed a complaint in federal court challenging a sole-source Air Force contract with ULA and alleging payments to Russia for the RD-180 violate U.S. sanctions.

A temporary injunction barring future purchases of RD-180 hardware was lifted last week after the departments of Treasury, Justice and State submitted letters saying ULA's purchase of the Russian engines was not in violation. But the SpaceX complaint and Rogozin's comments Tuesday have raised fresh questions about the engine's use in the Atlas 5.

ULA currently has 16 RD-180 engines in the United States, a company spokeswoman said, enough for Atlas 5 flights over the next two years or so.

"We proceed from the fact that without guarantees that our engines are used for non-military spacecraft launches only, we won't be able to supply them to the U.S.," Rogozin said in the Interfax report.

As for ULA's inventory of 16 engines already in the United States, Rogozin suggested Russian technicians would not be allowed to service already delivered hardware if military payloads are involved.

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, ULA said the company was not aware of any formal restrictions.

"However, if recent news reports are accurate, it affirms that SpaceX's irresponsible actions have created unnecessary distractions, threatened U.S. military satellite operations and undermined our future relationship with the International Space Station," the company said.

"We are hopeful that our two nations will engage in productive conversations over the coming months that will resolve the matter quickly."

The statement said in a worst-case scenario, ULA could move payloads originally manifested on the Atlas 5 to Delta rockets.

"ULA and our Department of Defense customers have always prepared contingency plans in the event of a supply disruption," the company said. "ULA has two launch vehicles that can support all of customers' needs. We also maintain a two-year inventory of engines to enable a smooth transition to our other rocket, Delta, which has all U.S.-produced rocket engines."

Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is a board member on the RD-180 Availability Risk Mitigation Study ordered by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Speaking at a conference last week, Griffin would not discuss the findings of the panel, but he said based on the track record of earlier programs building an alternative to the RD-180 would take five or six years "best case."

If the RD-180 is taken off the table, he said, "there will then be, clearly and obviously, multi-year, multi-billion-dollar delays, and the average payload will be delayed several years."

"It will not be good, and it will not be cheap," he said.

 

© 2014 William Harwood/CBS News

 

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Rogozin hurls salvo of attacks on U.S. space program
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
May 13, 2014

Russian deputy prime minster Dmitry Rogozin fired back against U.S. sanctions Tuesday, spurning NASA's proposed life extension of the International Space Station to 2024 and announcing plans to block exports of Russian rocket engines to launch U.S. military spacecraft.

File photo of Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin. Credit: Government.ru
 
Rogozin's statements are the latest chapter in a tit-for-tat between Russia and the United States over the fallout of Russia's incursion into Ukraine, which threatens to have ramifications in human spaceflight, the U.S. launch industry and the commercial satellite business.

"We've repeatedly warned our colleagues at the political and professional levels that sanctions are always a boomerang," Rogozin said. "They always come back around and are simply inappropriate in such sensitive spheres as cooperation in space exploration, production of spacecraft engines, and navigation, not to mention manned spaceflights."

Russia supplies RD-180 engines for first stages for the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft is the only vehicle capable of transporting astronauts to and from the space station.

In posts to Twitter on Tuesday, Rogozin said the Russian Federal Space Agency has no plans to continue cooperation with the United States on the International Space Station past 2020.

The deputy prime minister, whose portfolio includes oversight of the Russian space and defense industries, also tweeted: "Russia is ready to continue deliveries of RD-180 engines to the U.S. only under the guarantee that they won't be used in the interests of the Pentagon."

NASA and United Launch Alliance said Tuesday they have received no formal communique from Russia detailing the policy changes described by Rogozin.

"Space cooperation has been a hallmark of U.S.-Russia relations, including during the height of the Cold War, and most notably, in the past 13 consecutive years of continuous human presence on board the International Space Station," NASA said in a statement to reporters.

"Ongoing operations on the ISS continue on a normal basis with a planned return of crew tonight ... and expected launch of a new crew in the next few weeks. We have not received any official notification from the Government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point."

File photo of the International Space Station as viewed from the departing space shuttle Endeavour in 2011. Credit: NASA
 
United Launch Alliance, the operator of the Atlas and Delta rocket families, blamed rival SpaceX for rankling international relations after the commercial rocket company filed suit in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims seeking to overturn the U.S. Air Force's planned sole-source award of 28 rocket launches to ULA.

SpaceX is trying to break into the lucrative market to launch U.S. national security satellites, which it says is monopolized by ULA.

The court has not ruled whether the $11 billion Air Force launch contract will stand, but a federal judge issued a temporary injunction April 30 preventing ULA from new purchases of RD-180 engines from NPO Energomash, a Moscow-based rocket engine contractor.

The dual-nozzle engines are imported to the United States by RD AMROSS, a venture controlled by NPO Energomash and United Technologies Corp.

Judge Susan Braden released the order barring the engine purchases after SpaceX raised concerns that Rogozin would personally profit from U.S. taxpayer money used to buy RD-180 engines.

Government regulators submitted letters to the court certifying that the engine purchases do not violate U.S. sanctions against Russia, and Braden lifted the preliminary injunction May 8 to allow ULA and its suppliers to continue the RD-180 engine trade.

"ULA and our NPO Energomash supplier in Russia are not aware of any restrictions," said Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson, in a written statement responding to Rogozin's comments Tuesday. "However, if recent news reports are accurate, it affirms that SpaceX's irresponsible actions have created unnecessary distractions, threatened U.S. military satellite operations, and undermined our future relationship with the International Space Station.

"We are hopeful that our two nations will engage in productive conversations over the coming months that will resolve the matter quickly," ULA said.

Industry officials say there are 16 RD-180 engines currently in the United States, with plans for a fresh shipment of engines to arrive from Russia later this year.

ULA says its inventory of RD-180 engines will keep the Atlas 5 rocket flying for at least two years. The Atlas 5 manifest over the next few years is filled with U.S. military and intelligence-gathering satellites, NASA space probes and a handful of commercial satellites.

File photo of an Atlas 5 rocket launch April 3 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Credit: Gene Blevins/LA Daily News
 
Future payloads could be assigned to launch on the more expensive Delta 4 rocket, ULA's other launcher, which has U.S.-built engines, the company said.

The Ukraine crisis has prompted renewed calls for the development of a U.S. alternative to the Russian RD-180 engine. Burning a mix of liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene, the engine produces up to 860,000 pounds of thrust at sea level.

No other hydrocarbon-fueled engine in the world matches the RD-180's performance.

The House Armed Services Committee on May 7 approved a bill authorizing up to $220 million in funding to kick-start development of a large U.S.-made rocket engine in the same class as the RD-180. The money must still be appropriated by lawmakers, pass both chambers of Congress, and be approved by the White House.

Rogozin announced the space station and RD-180 engine policies in a press conference alongside Oleg Ostapenko, head of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

The deputy prime minister is listed with other top Russian government officials in sanctions aimed at curtailing the travel and U.S. financial interests of individuals believed to be involved in Russia's annexation of Crimea.

In early April, the U.S. State Department directed NASA to end all bilateral cooperation with the Russian government. The International Space Station, by far the largest collaborative effort between NASA and Roscosmos, was exempted from the policy along with other smaller scientific projects.

The U.S. government expanded sanctions April 28 to include limitations on the export to Russia of defense-related hardware on the U.S. Munitions List, a broad index of items that includes many satellite components.

The export sanctions raised a cloud of uncertainty over the world's largest commercial communications satellite operators. Many large telecom satellites launch on Russian Proton rockets from Kazakhstan under contract to U.S.-based International Launch Services, which is one of the three largest global commercial launch providers with Arianespace and SpaceX.

Ostapenko echoed statements made in recent days by top satellite industry executives, saying commercial Proton launches should continue unabated for the rest of 2014, but negotiations for launches in 2015 and 2016 are still ongoing.

"Sanctions are like releasing a bull in a china shop. That said, we've always built Russian policy on the following logic -- a statement in response to a statement and a reaction following an action," Rogozin said.

According to a transcript of Rogozin's comments posted on a Russian government website, Roscosmos officials "expect that we need the ISS until exactly 2020."

File photo of a Soyuz crew craft approaching the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
 
"After 2020, we would like to divert these resources and intellectual capabilities, and manufacturing capabilities, to create more promising space projects," Ostapenko said, according to a transcript of the press conference.

"We need to understand how much profit we're making by using the station, calculate all the expenses and depending on the results decide what to do next," Rogozin was quoted by the Interfax news agency.

The White House announced in January it endorsed extending operations of the space station until 2024. The Obama administration previously only approved flying the orbiting research complex, which is jointly managed by the United States, Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and Canada, until 2020.

As the two lead partners on the space station, Russia and the United States rely on each other for critical services. NASA has exclusively used Russia's Soyuz ferry craft to transport U.S. astronauts between the space station and Earth since the space shuttle's retirement in 2011.

The Soyuz is one of two operational human-rated spacecraft in the world, along with China's Shenzhou space capsule. NASA is banned from any bilateral cooperation with China's space program under U.S. law.

Russia's section of the space station runs on electrical power generated by U.S. solar arrays, and NASA's control moment gyroscopes control the lab's orientation in orbit, easing the consumption of Russian rocket fuel to keep the football field-sized complex pointed in the right direction.

Russia is responsible for periodically boosting the space station's altitude to counteract the effect of atmospheric drag in the outpost's 260-mile-high orbit.

Rogozin told reporters the Russian government has instructed Roscosmos to work with partners in the Asia-Pacific. Later Tuesday, Rogozin said on Twitter that Russian space officials will discuss bilateral cooperation on space projects with China on May 19, the eve of President Vladimir Putin's visit there.

Rogozin and Ostapenko also announced they would revoke approvals for 11 ground stations in Russia supporting the U.S. military's Global Positioning System, unless the United States allows Russia to install similar equipment on U.S. territory for its Glonass satellite navigation service.

Glonass is Russia's counterpart to the GPS satellite fleet.

Rogozin said operations of the GPS stations would be suspended June 1 unless Moscow and Washington can reach an agreement on building Glonass stations in the United States. If there is no deal by Sept. 1, Rogozin said the GPS stations would be closed.

The GPS ground stations were placed in Russia under an agreement first signed in 1993.

The ground stations are part of a worldwide network of facilities which transmit navigation information to GPS satellites to help the spacecraft determine their exact position in space. This data allows the satellites to detect the locations of users on the ground.

Ostapenko said Russia has submitted documentation to the U.S. government required for the construction of the Glonass ground stations in the United States.

© 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.

 

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Russian Rocket Engine Ban on US Military Launches Could Affect NASA Spaceflight

Douglas Messier, SPACE.com Contributor   |   May 14, 2014 12:59pm ET

 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket launches the classified spy satellite NROL-67 into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office on April 10, 2014 in a mission that lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Credit: United Launch Alliance View full size image

In a move with wide-ranging implications for NASA's human spaceflight program and U.S. national security, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin yesterday (May 13) announced that his nation would ban the export of RD-180 rocket engines to the United States and pull out of the International Space Station project in 2020.

"Russia is ready to continue deliveries of RD-180 engines to the US only under the guarantee that they won't be used in the interests of the Pentagon," he wrote in a tweet.

The RD-180 engine powers the first stage of United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket, which is used almost exclusively to launch American military satellites and other government payloads. NPO Energomash of Russia builds the engines and sells them to ULA through RD-AMROSS, a joint venture of Energomash and United Technologies Corp.

The politics of space

The moves are in retaliation for sanctions the United States placed on Rogozin and other government officials over Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula and the actions of Moscow-backed paramilitary groups in eastern Ukraine. Rogozin oversees Russia's military and space sectors.

A ban on RD-180 exports would likely have the U.S. Air Force scrambling to restructure its plans for launching defense satellites, and it could also disrupt NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to develop vehicles capable of taking U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. American astronauts now ride on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Two of the three commercial crew competitors, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp., plan to launch their seven-person spacecraft on Atlas V boosters. The third competitor, SpaceX, would launch its Dragon spacecraft aboard its own Falcon 9 rocket, which is domestically produced. [NASA's Commercial Space Taxi Plan for Astronauts (Video)]

Boeing has designed its CST-100 capsule spacecraft to be compatible with multiple launch vehicles. The company could potentially launch the CST-100 on ULA's Delta 4 booster or SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. It is not known whether Sierra Nevada has the same options with its Dream Chaser mini-space shuttle.

NASA confident of U.S. space access

In remarks following the dedication ceremony of the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California yesterday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said he hadn't heard Rogozin's statement yet.

"We're really focused right now on the selection of a provider or providers for our ability to take American astronauts from American soil again," Bolden said. "We've got three great bidders. You know, as I understand it, really strong companies. We've been working, as you know, with Boeing and Sierra Nevada and SpaceX for a number of years now … My intent is that we'll be launching Americans from American soil in 2017. [The Rockets and Spaceships of SpaceX (Photos)]

"The way that I understand it from talking with ULA is they have enough engines already in their stockpile to fly out their missions for the next few years," Bolden added. "It's like people were concerned about Orbital [Sciences Corp.] because they used what is a Russian rocket engine, it was the old NK-33 but it's now called the AJ-26, but they own every single one of those assets. So none of this is caught up in it. That's why I don't go on rumor and innuendo, you know, I sit down with the team. And the team's pretty confident we're going to have some commercial providers to carry humans to orbit."

United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket is powered by the RD-180 engine, which is built by NPO Energomash in the Moscow region and sold to ULA by RD-Amross, a joint venture between the Russian manufacturer and United Technologies Corp.
Credit: NASA/Charisse Nahser

View full size image

Bolden also stressed that the American plan to extend use of the International Space Station from 2020 to at least 2024 was a proposal to the international partners, which include Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada.

"It is not a unilateral decision on the part of the United States," he said. "Our recommendation to the partners, and all of the partners have agreed that they're going to look at extending the life of the station to 2024 … And I would remind everyone, the first two people to sign the proposal to do so were Mr. [Oleg] Ostapenko and me. Mr. Ostapenko [the head of] Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. You're talking about diplomatic action, and I'm talking about just operational interaction between Roscosmos and NASA. So, until we get word from somebody else, then nothing's changed for us right now."

NASA also released a formal statement that focused on cooperation with Russia:

"Space cooperation has been a hallmark of US-Russia relations, including during the height of the Cold War, and most notably, in the past 13 consecutive years of continuous human presence on board the International Space Station. Ongoing operations on the ISS continue on a normal basis with a planned return of crew [Tuesday night] and expected launch of a new crew in the next few weeks. We have not received any official notification from the Government of Russia on any changes in our space cooperation at this point."

Air Force launches could feel pinch

The impact on the U.S. Air Force would be even more significant than on NASA. In December, the service signed a no-bid deal to purchase 36 Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rocket cores from ULA over the next five years. Seven or eight additional launches would be open to new competitors such as SpaceX.

SpaceX recently filed suit to overturn the award, discussing the sanctions against Rogozin at length in the complaint. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting ULA from purchasing additional RD-180 engines unless the government provided assurances that the purchases didn't violate the sanctions against Rogozin.

The judge lifted the injunction after the government provided those assurances. However, Rogozin's announcement yesterday rendered the decision moot.

ULA issued a statement yesterday saying it was unaware of any restrictions on the export of the engines.

"We are hopeful that our two nations will engage in productive conversations over the coming months that will resolve the matter quickly," the company wrote in the statement. "ULA and our Department of Defense customers have always prepared contingency plans in the event of a supply disruption. ULA has two launch vehicles that can support all of customers' needs. We also maintain a two-year inventory of engines to enable a smooth transition to our other rocket, Delta, which has all U.S.-produced rocket engines."

ULA also blamed SpaceX for pushing the issue over the brink.

"If recent news reports are accurate, it affirms that SpaceX's irresponsible actions have created unnecessary distractions, threatened U.S. military satellite operations, and undermined our future relationship with the International Space Station."

ULA's options for replacing the RD-180 engine are neither cheap nor fast. United Technologies has the right to produce RD-180 engines in the United States under license. However, officials have said such an effort could cost $1 billion and take five years, thus idling the Atlas V rocket for several years.

Earlier this month, a House Armed Services subcommittee set aside $220 million to begin full-scale development of an U.S. rocket engine alternative to the RD-180 as part of a budget markup. The engine would be ready for flights no later than 2019.

 

 

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