Who launches the most important US national security satellite payloads? It is probably not the answer you would think. These payloads include ballistic missile early warning satellites, weather satellites, reconnaissance satellites and communication satellites. In many ways it is Russia. Since the 1990s the US Air Force, the organization responsible for placing national security payloads into orbit, has been reliant upon the Russian designed and built RD-180 booster engine to place its most important assets into orbit.
Why? Cost and reliability. The US has domestically produced engines that can do the job but not nearly as efficient as the RD-180. The RD 180 is powerful, has fewer parts and is easier to manufacture than the current US made RS-68/A engine. While the RS-68 powers the Delta IV rocket family, the worlds most powerful orbital launch system currently in service, it does so at a cost nearly 30% more expensive than the RD-180. Since the mid 1990s when the US and Russian governments agreed to this deal the US military became addicted to the RD-180 and little was done to find a domestically produced equal. This was the case until 2014 when congress finally authorized funding to produce an alternative in response to the Russian annexation of Crimea.
Currently the US is on schedule to launch the AR-1 booster no earlier than 2019. The AR-1 is being produced by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Read the short report that is put into regular person talk.
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