United Launch Alliance’s bid to be allowed to use more RD-180 rocket engines received a boost this week, after a provision was included in the US$1.15tn omnibus spending bill to override the limits Congress placed on its use of the Russian-made engines.
United Launch Alliance’s bid to be allowed to use more RD-180 rocket engines received a boost this week, after a provision was included in the US$1.15tn omnibus spending bill to override the limits Congress placed on its use of the Russian-made engines.
ULA is working with US firms to develop a domestic alternative, but for now its Atlas V workhorse is reliant on the NPO Energomash-built RD-180.
The text added to the bill, passed by the House of Representatives today, drew the ire of Senator John McCain, who was furious that it contravened the National Defense Authorization Act.
The new provision rules that “notwithstanding any other provision of law, award may be made to a launch service provider competing with any certified launch vehicle in its inventory regardless of the country of origin of the rocket engine that will be used on its launch vehicle, in order to ensure robust competition and continued assured access to space”.
McCain criticised his fellow senators Richard Shelby and Dick Durbin, who sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and described the inclusion of the measure as a “triumph of pork barrel parochialism”. He said he planned to address it in the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
Speaking on Wednesday on the floor of the Senate, McCain said: “Here we stand with a 2000-page omnibus appropriations bill, crafted in secret with no debate, which most of us are seeing for the first time this morning. And buried within it is a policy provision that would effectively allow unlimited purchases and use of Russian rocket engines.”
Shelby has argued that, without changes to the restrictions pushed by McCain, virtually all US military missions will be reliant on SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which is currently grounded and is yet to launch a national security payload.
In a further twist, Shelby – a Republican senator from Alabama, home to a huge ULA facility in Decatur – opposed the spending bill, which he himself shaped.
While he supported “the inclusion of several conservative priorities and key provisions critical to Alabama in this year’s omnibus bill”, Shelby said he opposed the overall bill as it gave “a blank check to President Obama to continue his dangerous Syrian refugee resettlement plan”.
The bill is set to be voted on by the Senate later today and, in spite of Shelby’s expected ‘no’ vote, the consensus in the US is that the bill will be cleared.
A ULA spokesperson declined to comment on the inclusion of the provision in the spending bill.
Congress initially banned ULA from using RD-180s for US national security missions in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, as part of wider sanctions to punish the Kremlin for its incursions into Ukraine.
ULA has subsequently been allowed to use a limited amount while it waits for a US-made alternative to be developed, but it argues it does not have enough engines to balance its military and commercial activities.
Meanwhile, SpaceX won Air Force certification to compete for national security missions earlier this year, heralding what was supposed to be renewed competition in the market. SpaceX looks set to win the launch of a next generation GPS satellite in 2018 after ULA decided not to bid in the tender.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vehicle suffered its first complete loss in June, but is days away from returning to flight with the industry confident that this year’s crash was just a blip.
