S.P. KOROLEV ROCKET AND SPACE PUBLIC CORPORATION ENERGIA OPEN RSC ENERGIA and Orbital Sciences Corporation have signed a direct contract for the delivery to the US of engines made by NPO ENERGOMASH (a subsidiary of RSC Energia). The contract value is approximately $1 billion. Altogether, Russia is to deliver to the US 60 RD-181 engines - the customer is going to receive the first two engines as early as June 2015.
The contract was concluded directly with the Orbital Sciences Corporation. The engine RD-181 was developed specifically for use on the ANTARES launch vehicle, its use will make it possible to deliver significantly bigger payloads to the ISS and low-Earth orbits. Used in the production of RD-181 materials, innovative engineering and design solutions, which made it possible to improve the engine performance (the thrust is 186 tons).
RD-181 was derived from the engine RD-191, which enabled the successful flight of ANGARA launch vehicle in the summer of 2014, and which was also installed on ANGARA launch vehicle which flew in December of 2014 from Plesetsk launch site.
