Senate reaches compromise on Russia rocket engine controversy

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We covered the monopoly the ULA, or United Launch Alliance, a "private sector" public company, had for years since about 2005 in US Satellite launches. We also discussed how they spent millions inside the beltway trying to lobby Tesla out of being considered for launch contracts for the US Air Force, forcing Musk and his company Space X to sue and win admittance to do ISS (International Space Station) resupply. Space X was the first private company to launch their own rocket, using their own rocket engines, and successfully dock with the ISS.

 

Then when we criticized Putin for his actions in the Ukraine, Putin embargoed any sales of rocket engines to the US. Until that time it was not public knowledge that the ULA, Lockheed and Boeing, had been buying their RD-180 rocket engines from Russia. The ULA only had about 156 RD-180 engines put back before the supply was shut down.

 

Once Space X started launching we also found out that they could do the same missions as ULA for about half the cost to the US Taxpayers.

 

Space X is now the largest private rocket engine manufacturer in the world.

 

But somehow in this article, they act as if there were not already a US manufacturer of heavy lift rocket engines.

 

Excerpt:

 

"After years of controversy, the Senate has come to an agreement on the use of Russian rocket engines, announcing a deal that would allow the United Launch Alliance to use as many as 18 of the engines over the next several years.

 

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, had fought to severely restrict the use of the engines in the Pentagon's launches, saying the U.S. military should not depend on Russia to get its satellites into space. But he said he agreed to the compromise because it calls for no launch contracts using the engines to be awarded after 2022.

 

ULA, the joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, uses the RD-180 in its Atlas V rocket. It is working with Jeffrey P. Bezos's Blue Origin to develop a new, American-made engine that could be ready for its new Vulcan rocket by as early as 2019. Aerojet Rocketdyne is also working on a replacement engine.

 

(Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com, also owns The Washington Post.)

 

The language was added to the Pentagon's spending bill, which was approved by the Senate on Tuesday, 85 to 13.

In a statement, ULA applauded the compromise, saying it "ensures our country’s assured access to space, strengthens competition, protects taxpayers and keeps America’s launch industry healthy for decades to come."

 

The article has a very interesting set of ten comments at the bottom that also point out the absurdity of pretending that the ULA isn't desperate and "spinning" their exposed dirty little secret into something where they are the heroes?

 

Space X launches for less, and has just crashed another test return booster making it 4 in a row success, and one crash. But the Space X launch and missions have gone on without a hitch since the restart of the program. See the full article and comments section here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/06/14/senate-reaches-compromise-on-russia-rocket-engine-controversy/?wpisrc=nl_tech&wpmm=1

 

The ULA gets by.

 

So why aren't they buying from Musk and Space X? The ULA was willing to support Russian R&D ands engineers by buying their engines and not engineering their own since about 2004? Now we are supposed to act like Space X isn't right there with engines to sell employing Americans at Space X? See the article and the reader comments. We aren't the only people aware of the big holes in the story as reported by Bezos' newspaper, who is now contracted by the ULA.