Orbital Sciences has dropped a lawsuit against rival US launch provider United Launch Alliance that claimed it had been illegally blocked from buying Russian RD-180 engines.
It is instead pursuing a business resolution with ULA to gain access to the…
Orbital Sciences has dropped a lawsuit against rival US launch provider United Launch Alliance that claimed it had been illegally blocked from buying Russian RD-180 engines.
It is instead pursuing a business resolution with ULA to gain access to the engines, which are made by RD Amross, a joint venture between Russia’s NPO Energomash and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of the US.
“If a mutually agreeable resolution is not reached, Orbital will have the option to refile its lawsuit,” stated Orbital.
The company filed the legal action over ULA’s exclusivity deal with RD Amross last year, as it emerged that the US Federal Trade Commission was probing the arrangement.
Orbital had complained that it had been forced to use AJ-26 engines from US manufacturer Aerojet, which are no longer in production and not capable of matching RD-180 in thrust.
The company said in June 2013 that it had enough AJ-26 engines for the NASA missions it had secured for the following three years, but that RD-180 provided the “only viable long-term propulsion engine available in the US”.
Garrett Pierce, Orbital’s CFO, was cited earlier this month as saying the company was considering two or three Russian-based alternatives to the AJ-26.
