Why is NASA still using Russian RD-180 rocket engines?

[longknife]

Because we stopped making good ones of our own.

Unlike the gas-generator engines used in the US Space Shuttle program and the Apollo Moon landings, the Soviet ones did not let the exhaust from the rocket fuel go to waste. Instead, the exhaust from the so-called pre-burners (used to send fuel and oxygen into the main combustion chamber under high pressure to burn them there and generate thrust) was re-injected into the main combustion chamber, giving the engine more power.

Civilian companies are now stepping up.

Four companies are now competing to build a new, domestic US rocket engine: Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, the ULA and Northrop Grumman. SpaceX and Blue Origin already announced that they are developing and testing their own engines, based on technologies similar to those used in RD-180.

Much more @ Strings attached: Why US can’t stop using ‘toxic’ Russian RD-180 rocket engines

 

[Muhammed]

"One cannot just copy an engine – either a rocket one or an aircraft one – even if one has it in possession. To create something similar [to RD-180], one would need at least 10 years and a billion dollars.”

Perhaps Clinton shouldn't have taken that billion from our space program budget and given it to Russia.

 

[james bond]

"One cannot just copy an engine – either a rocket one or an aircraft one – even if one has it in possession. To create something similar [to RD-180], one would need at least 10 years and a billion dollars.”

Perhaps Clinton shouldn't have taken that billion from our space program budget and given it to Russia.

Clinton and Al Gore were hurrible US people. President George H W Bush got us the Space Shuttle launches and Space-X ended up taking over sending payloads into space. Now, they and other US cos have to step up in order to create and replace the RD-180 by 2022.

 

[progressive hunter]

TRUMP???

 

[harmonica]

???!!!!
we were ahead of them in engine use--yes?