Echo of a distant explosion

The American corporation breaks cooperation with Russian partners, which lasted almost 20 years

The American Corporation Orbital Sciences has abandoned further purchases produced in Samara at the Kuznetsov OJSC NK-33 missile engines. Americans plan to fly to the International Space Station on a rocket with another motor installation. Radio Freedom was confirmed by this information at the Samara factory.

The reason for the termination of cooperation was the accident on October 29 of this year at the cosmodrome in Virginia The accident of the Antares launch vehicle with the Cygnus cargo ship . The cause of the accident is the refusal of a turbine unit in one of the Samara production engines.

The Samara company Kuznetsov collaborated with the Americans since the fall of 1995, when the Aerojet concern first tested the NK-33 on its stand, after which it purchased 47 NK-33 engines at a price of $ 1 million for each. Under the contract until 2020, the Samara enterprise was supposed to manufacture 50 NK-33 engines.

The termination of cooperation between the Orbital Sciences Corporation with the Samara enterprise threatens OJSC Kuznetsov bankruptcy.

“In 2003-2004, the plant was already on the verge of bankruptcy,” said Vitaly Viktorovich , an employee of Kuznetsov OJSC, who asked not to give his last name. -Then, due to multimillion-dollar debts, the boiler room was even disconnected, supplying the administrative village in which factory workers live. Salary delays reached 3 months. The signing of the contract with the Americans improved the financial situation at the plant. The exact amount of the contract is unknown, but starting from last year at the plant, they began to pay salaries and bonuses without delay. For the first time in 20 years, it has become prestigious for us to work. For once, young people hired for once: after all, collectors, turners and locksmiths were mostly pensioners. Now the salary is about 20 thousand, even 25 with a prize. Now that the supply of engines for the Americans has been stopped, you can forget about the modernization of the plant. We continue to collect engines on the equipment of the sixties. The factory still has trophy German machines on which they made FAU missiles, so we are not used to old equipment.

The main commercial competitor of the Orbital Sciences Ammerkan Corporation - SpaceX uses American -made engines in its projects. The founder of this company, billionaire Elon Musk, not so long ago, not so long ago noted that the use of Orbital Sciences made more than forty years ago by Soviet missile engines looks ridiculous. Space of space technology from the research organization Global Securities Charles Vick considers this kind of lunge from the competitor Orbital Sciences inappropriate:

- I am not impressed with this kind of statement. Firstly, because the NK-33 engines in the United States were thoroughly modernized, and secondly, the company Elon Mask himself cannot boast of the quality of its rocket engines, ”he retorts.

Orbital Sciences is not the only American spacecraft player who uses Russian -made rocket engines. The American company United Launch Alliance uses Russian RD-180 engines in the first stage of Atlas launch vehicles, which bring scientific and even military satellites into orbit.

Dependence on Russia in this area causes concern in the United States. This concern increased earlier this year, after the deputy chairman of the Russian government, Dmitry Rogozin, threatened that Russia could stop selling missile engines in the United States in response to economic sanctions imposed in relation to it. In July this year, hearing was held in the US Senate on this occasion. Experts who performed there expressed the opinion that if Russia really stops selling RD-180 engines in the United States, this can significantly delay the launch of critical American satellites.

Charles Vic agree that the United States must get rid of dependence on Russian missile engines. However, he notes that this can take a lot of time:

-For such a country as the United States, which considers itself a world leader, to be on someone depending in the field of space development is simply stupid. This jeopardizes the safety of ourselves and our allies. But the Congress made a mistake by cutting the appropriations for space developments, and now we have to pay for this. We need to seriously revise the question of what areas of science and technology we need to finance. A huge hole has formed in the financing of space developments, and in order to eliminate it, you will need to show political will. I am sure that this will happen sooner or later, but this process will be long, ”said the expert on space technology Charles Vic.