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Lawmakers propose U.S. alternative to Russian engine
BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: May 1, 2014


A draft bill proposed by House lawmakers would direct the Pentagon to develop a U.S.-built rocket engine as a domestic alternative for the Russian RD-180 engine used on the Atlas 5 rocket.



The legislation passed by a House subcommittee Wednesday calls for up the U.S. military to spend up to $220 million next year to kick off full-scale development of the engine, which could be ready for flights no later than 2019.

The bill states the Defense Department "should develop a next-generation liquid rocket engine that is made in the United States, meets the requirements of the national security space community, is developed by not later than 2019, is developed using full and open competition, and is available for purchase by all space launch providers of the United States."

The proposal is part of a draft 2015 National Defense Authorization Act passed Wednesday by a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. The full committee is scheduled to propose amendments and vote on the bill May 7 before sending it for consideration by the full House of Representatives.

If approved by the House and agreed to by the Senate and President Barack Obama, the legislation directs the military to pursue the "effective, efficient, and expedient transition from the use of non-allied space launch engines to a domestic alternative for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program."

A separate appropriations bill must be passed to set a firm budget for the engine development.

The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket's first stage is powered by a dual-nozzle RD-180 engine built by Moscow-based NPO Energomash and marketed by RD AMROSS, a U.S.-based company jointly owned by Energomash and Pratt & Whitney.

No engine in the class of the RD-180 engine, which is fueled by kerosene and produces 860,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, is manufactured in the United States today.

The Atlas 5 is a workhorse in launchings of military communications and navigation satellites, top secret intelligence-gathering payloads, and NASA's robotic science probes, such as the Curiosity rover on Mars.

The RD-180 engine has a perfect performance record on 51 flights since 2000.

The draft legislation would also direct Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to work with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden to "ensure that the rocket engine developed meets objectives that are common to both the national security space community and the civil space program of the United States."

Lawmakers also request NASA and the Defense Department submit a report within six months of the enactment of the authorization act spelling out a plan for development of the engine, an analysis of the benefits of a public-private partnership, the estimated development costs, and the requirements for the engine.

A similar authorization bill for NASA approved by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee this week also includes language on a new rocket engine, requiring NASA work with the Pentagon on its development.




A judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims issued an temporary order Wednesday barring United Launch Alliance from purchasing any additional Atlas 5 engines from NPO Energomash.

Judge Susan Braden granted the injunction after SpaceX filed suit asking the court to stop the U.S. Air Force's sole-source $11 billion award in December of a block of 27 satellite launches to ULA, which formed in 2006 from the merger of Boeing and Lockheed Martin's Delta and Atlas rocket programs.

The Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets were developed in the 1990s under the Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program intended to replace more costly military satellite launchers with modernized, less expensive and more capable vehicles.

But the commercial launch market for the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 never materialized, and competition disappeared when the programs merged under the United Launch Alliance banner.

In the lawsuit, SpaceX says it can launch the missions awarded to ULA at a fraction of the cost.

ULA says it has enough RD-180 engines in stock to support Atlas 5 launches well into 2016, and RD AMROSS recently signed a five-year contract to deliver more engines through 2018, according to Matthew Bates, a Pratt & Whitney spokesperson.

The injunction issued Wednesday "does not extend to any purchase orders that have been placed or moneys paid to NPO Energomash prior to" April 30.

Bates told Spaceflight Now in March that RD AMROSS has a license to produce RD-180 engines in the United States, but industry officials estimate it would take five years and $1 billion to start building the engines domestically.

SpaceX claimed in an April 28 court filing that the rocket engine purchases from Energomash violate U.S. sanctions imposed on top Russian government officials, including deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, whose portfolio includes leading the aerospace industry.

"Mr. Rogozin is on the United States' sanctions list as a result of Russia's annexation ofthe Crimea," SpaceX said in its complaint filed Monday. "In other words, under the ULA contract, the Air Force is sending millions of dollars directly to an entity controlled by Russia and to an industry led by an individual identified for sanctions."

In the complaint, SpaceX requested the court open all of the single-core Atlas 5 and Delta 4 launches awarded to ULA in December to competition. Several of the missions contracted to ULA require launches of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket -- a vehicle powered by three first stage cores -- which exceeds the lift capability of SpaceX's Falcon 9 satellite booster.

SpaceX is developing a larger rocket called the Falcon Heavy, but it will not enter service until at least early 2015.

The Delta 4 rocket's main engine is the RS-68, a hydrogen-powered engine built in the United States by Aerojet Rocketdyne.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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SpaceX wins injunction to stop USAF buying Russian rocket engines
Photo
Thu, May 1 2014
By Supriya Kurane
(Reuters) - A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge issued an injunction late Wednesday prohibiting a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing from proceeding with plans to buy Russian-made rocket engines used to send U.S. Air Force satellites into space.
Space Exploration Technologies, the privately held company known as SpaceX, won the temporary injunction against the U.S. government and contractors Boeing and Lockheed operating as United Launch Alliance.
The U.S. Air Force and United Launch Alliance are prohibited "from making any purchases from or payment of money to NPO Energomash", Federal Claims Court Judge Susan Braden wrote in the order.
The preliminary injunction does not extend to any purchase orders placed or money paid to Russian rocket engine maker NPO Energomash prior to the date of the order.
Lawmakers on Wednesday called for a program to develop a next-generation liquid-fuel rocket engine within five years, proposing legislation aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on Russian engines to launch military and spy satellites.
Moscow's annexation of neighbor Ukraine's Crimea region and the massing of Russian troops near the border have left East-West relations more tense than at any time since the Cold War.
SpaceX, which manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft, last week filed a lawsuit to protest the Air Force's award of a multibillion-dollar, non-compete contract for 36 rocket launches to a partnership of the two biggest U.S. weapons makers.
The company wants the Air Force to reverse the sole-source award of 36 boosters to United Launch Alliance and open the procurement to commercial competition.
United Launch Alliance, the U.S. Air Force and NPO Energomash were not available for immediate comment.
SpaceX, co-founded by investor Elon Musk who also heads electric car company Tesla, says its rockets are U.S. made.
(Reporting by Supriya Kurane in Bangalore; editing by Jason Neely)

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Replacing Russian Rocket Engine Isn’t Easy, Pentagon Says
By Tony Capaccio - May 1, 2014
The Pentagon has no “great solution” to reduce its dependence on a Russian-made engine that powers the rocket used to launch U.S. military satellites, the Defense Department’s top weapons buyer said.

“We don’t have a great solution,” Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, said yesterday after testifying before a Senate committee. “We haven’t made any decisions yet.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the Air Force to review its reliance on the rocket engine after tensions over Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s Crimea region prompted questions from lawmakers about that long-time supply connection. United Launch Alliance LLC, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Boeing Co. (BA), uses the Russian-made RD-180 engine on Atlas V rockets.

Among the options the Air Force is outlining for Hagel are building versions in the U.S. under an existing license from the Russian maker or depending only on Delta-class rockets that use another engine, Kendall said. The U.S. also could accelerate the certification of new companies to launch satellites that don’t use the Russian engine, he said.

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a Hawthorne, California-based company that’s trying to break into the military launch market, said at a March 5 congressional hearing that launches may be at risk because of dependence on the Russian engine.

‘Very Dependent’

SpaceX claimed in a complaint filed April 28 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington that the Air Force illegally shut it out of the market for military satellite launches by giving a monopoly to the joint venture of Chicago-based Boeing and Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed. Musk’s company says the contract funnels money from U.S. taxpayers to Russia’s military industrial complex and potentially to those under U.S. sanctions because of the continuing Ukraine crisis.

SpaceX won a court order yesterday temporarily blocking the Air Force from buying the Russian rocket engines. Judge Susan Braden’s preliminary injunction doesn’t cover existing contracts or payments. Braden said her decision was reached after considering public interest, national defense and security concerns.

The Air Force review, which hasn’t been submitted to Hagel, found that the Russian company, NPO Energomash, is “very dependent on their sales to us,” Kendall said. “That company really needs the sales. From that side of it, we’re in pretty good shape.”

Two-Year Supply

The options for minimizing a cutoff have drawbacks, such as harnessing the time and know-how to build the engines in the U.S. and limited production capability for the Delta rocket, Kendall said.

The United Launch Alliance has stockpiled about a two-year supply of the engines based on the current planned satellite launch schedule, Pentagon spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said in an e-mail in March.

The joint venture is also taking delivery of five more engines this year, ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said in an e-mailed statement.

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U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby rips NASA over Space Launch System funding
Senator Shelby3569.JPG
Senator Richard Shelby after his annual 2013 Washington Update at Huntsville's Von Braun Center. (Sarah Cole/al.com) (Sarah Cole)
Print Lee Roop | [email protected] By Lee Roop | [email protected]
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on May 01, 2014 at 12:26 PM, updated May 01, 2014 at 1:19 PM

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Tuscaloosa) ripped NASA today for underfunding the Space Launch System (SLS) while "spending billions to help private companies develop a launch vehicle" with almost no financial oversight.

Shelby, the vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released his statement at a hearing on NASA's 2015 budget request. His comments were directed at NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

"While your statement depicts SLS as critical to NASA's exploration goals, the requested budget does not reflect a true commitment to that endeavor," said Shelby. "Instead, the budget request maintains a resource level that underfunds SLS and inserts unnecessary budgetary and schedule risk into the future of human exploration. For the first time in recent memory, NASA has a strategic plan for space exploration that will utilize one platform to meet the needs of multiple exploration missions well into the future. That platform is SLS.... None of this will be possible if we short change this effort."

On commercial space, Shelby said NASA has "little or no access to the books and records associated with its investment." None of the companies competing to build private space taxis "will publicly disclose its investment in this so-called 'public private partnership,'" Shelby said. "Is the federal government a majority investor or a minority investor?"

Shelby said NASA's 2015 budget proposal is $186 million below this year's allocation. The Space Launch System is being developed in Alabama at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center.

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

And in a Related

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TerraN_EmpirE said:

Oh Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock were Beaming in.

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A new photo taken by the NASA rover Curiosity ..has sent shock waves through the alien conspiracy theory corners of the internet.

It appears that the rover captured an unexplained beam of light on the surface of Mars.
The unknown white speck stands out against a backdrop of grey and black. It is so distinct, and yet utterly unidentifiable.
The immediate reaction from some theorists is that it’s definite proof that there is life on the Red Planet. Either it is a tiny alien craft shining in the distance or, even better, a glimpse of a bizarre form of life on Mars.

Critics and skeptics slammed such conclusions immediately, stating that there is a logical explanation for the photo. An explanation that has nothing to do with alien lifeforms.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offered up one such explanation in the form of light reflecting off a rock. Of course, this doesn’t explain why the reflected light seems to rise above the ground some distance.

Another explanation put forward by experts is that it was merely a vent hole light leak.

As there is no one is at present able to go to Mars and confirm or deny what the strange blur is, it’s likely that the photograph will be seen as a smoking gun for some conspiracy theorists and a lot of excitement over nothing by skeptics.
In other words, the beat goes on.

Personally, I say the greatest takeaway from this controversy is that such a debate is even possible. A mere hundred years ago, few would have ever dreamed that we would be seeing actual photos from the surface of Mars.
Though persons of that time period were far more likely to believe in bizarre life on Mars, today many scientists do not think the planet currently can support life.

Of course, images like this give hope to those who will continue to seek proof that argues otherwise.

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Miragedriver said:

I found an article regarding the bright light seen on the surface of Mars and it provides a "resonable" explaination.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

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​

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Boeing-Lockheed Wins End to Ban on Russian Rocket Engines (2)
By Andrew Zajac May 08, 2014
A Boeing Co (BA:US).-Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT:US) venture that launches satellites for the U.S. military won an end to a ban on buying Russian rocket engines as a federal judge said the purchases don’t violate sanctions stemming from Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Susan Braden in Washington lifted the temporary order today, sidelining an issue that arose from an April 28 lawsuit by Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. The company, claiming the Air Force illegally shut it out of the military launch business, is asking Braden to reopen bidding for the contracts.

While SpaceX didn’t ask Braden to block purchases of the Russian technology, its court filings highlighted links between rocket-engine maker NPO Energomash and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who heads the country’s defense and space industries and is subject to U.S. sanctions.

Braden, who brought up the sanctions issue herself with her April 30 injunction, asked for opinions from the Treasury, State and Commerce departments regarding the rocket sales. Treasury’s sanctions unit reported May 6 that transactions with NPO Energomash “currently do not directly or indirectly contravene” sanctions against Rogozin.

Braden, accepting the views expressed in the three departments’ letters, ordered the government to report to her if the sanctions status of the transactions changes.

The Justice Department was joined by Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture, called United Launch Alliance, in seeking to have the injunction lifted. While the lawsuit is against the U.S., the judge allowed ULA to get into the case.

Sanctions Compliant

The information Braden received makes clear that the relationship “complies with the sanctions against Russia,” Jessica Rye, a spokeswoman for ULA, said in an e-mailed statement.

Emily Shanklin, a spokeswoman for SpaceX, didn’t reply to an e-mail requesting comment on the ruling.

SpaceX argued in a court filing that Treasury’s assessment was unpersuasive because “rather than make a determination one way or the other, Treasury’s letter only states that ‘as of today’ they have not yet done so,” according to a company court filing yesterday.

In urging that the ban remain in place, Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX said in court papers that Braden “raised obvious questions” about possible sanctions violations.

Captain Matthew Stines, an Air Force spokesman, didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment on the ruling.

SpaceX, saying in its complaint it seeks only a chance to compete against a United Launch Alliance “monopoly,” asked the judge to order the Air Force to allow “full and open competition” for launch projects.

Competition for military satellite launches, which have an estimated value of $70 billion through 2030, could save taxpayers more than $1 billion a year, according to Musk.

Closely held SpaceX already provides launch services for U.S. agencies, including NASA, and is seeking Air Force certification to launch satellites.

The case is Space Exploration Technologies Corp. v. U.S., 14-cv-00354, U.S. Court of Federal Claims (Washington).

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Judge Lifts Temporary Ban on RD-180 Engine Purchases
By Mike Gruss | May. 8, 2014

Dmitry Rogozin. Credit: RIA Novosti photo
WASHINGTON — A U.S. federal judge on May 8 lifted an injunction that temporarily barred the U.S. Air Force and United Launch Alliance from buying Russian-made rocket engines for launching launch national security missions that had been issued out of concern that the purchases violated sanctions against Russian leaders.

In issuing the temporary injunction April 30, Judge Susan Braden of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims cited the possibility that money from the transactions could wind up in the hands of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s space industry. Rogozin is one of 11 senior Russian officials sanctioned by the U.S. government following Russia’s incursions into Ukraine.

The engine in question is the RD-180, which is built by NPO Energomash of Russia and sold to ULA by RD-Amross, a joint venture between Energomash and United Technologies Corp. The engine is used on the first stage of ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket, one of two vehicles operated by the company.

Braden specified that the injunction would stand pending a determination by the U.S. Treasury, Commerce and State departments that RD-180 purchases did not specifically violate the sanctions.

In letters filed with the court May 6, officials with those departments said no decision had been made to specifically label NPO Energomash as a Rogozin-controlled enterprise.

Additionally, “to the best of our knowledge, purchases from and payments to NPO Energomash currently do not directly or indirectly contravene” the sanctions, Bradley Smith, chief counsel for the Treasury Department, said in a letter to the court.

The State Department’s letter echoed that sentiment, while Commerce deferred to the other agencies.

Based on those letters, Braden wrote May 8, she was dissolving the temporary injunction. “If the Government receives any indication, however, that purchases from or payment of money to NPO Energomash by ULS, ULA, or the United States Air Force will directly or indirectly” violate the White House sanctions, the government must inform the court immediately, she wrote.

The injunction came just two days after rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne, California, filed suit with the court, which rules on government contracting bid protests, seeking to block Air Force plans to buy a large number of rockets from ULA on a sole-source basis.


Follow Mike on Twitter: @Gruss_SN

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Russia’s Space Program Retaliates Against U.S. Sanctions
May 13, 2014 Amy Svitak and Amy Butler | AWIN First
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Atlas V: United Launch Alliance
PARIS, WASHINGTON – Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said May 13 that Moscow would halt the sale of RD-180 and NK-33 rocket engines to the U.S. for the purpose of launching military satellites.

The RD-180 is used to power the first stage of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, while a modified version of the NK-33 – the Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ-26 – provides core propulsion on the first stage of the Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares launch vehicle.

"We will assume that, without guarantees that our engines are used only for launching non-military spacecraft, we won’t be able to deliver them to the U.S.," Rogozin told reporters during a news conference.

ULA, which says it has more than two year’s worth of RD-180 engines in its U.S. inventory, is "not aware of any restrictions," according to a company statement. "If recent news reports are accurate, it affirms that [Space Exploration Technology’s] SpaceX’s irresponsible actions have created unnecessary distractions, threatened U.S. military satellite operations, and undermined our future relationship with the International Space Station." The company is referencing a protest in Federal Claims Court filed April 28 by SpaceX claiming that the Air Force’s five-year, sole-source deal with ULA unfairly cut the company, and its new Falcon 9 v1.1 launcher, out of the competition. The filing prompted a temporary injunction in payments for RD-180 work and thrust the issue into the public debate amid mounting tensions between Washington and Moscow.

"We are hopeful that our two nations will engage in productive conversations over the coming months that will resolve the matter quickly," the company statement says. "ULA and our Department of Defense customers have always prepared contingency plans in the event of a supply disruption [and we] maintain a two-year inventory of engines to enable a smooth transition to our other rocket, Delta, which has all U.S.-produced rocket engines."

The Air Force inked an agreement with ULA, currently a monopoly in the U.S., in December for 36 engine cores, including Atlas V and Delta IV missions. In the meantime, the Air Force is studying options for developing a U.S. alternative to the RD-180 in an effort to curb U.S. reliance on Russia for launching national security payloads.

A supply interruption for the RD-180 is, however, forcing a policy discussion over whether Washington should continue to rely on a Russian engine, pay to establish stateside co-production, invest in a new engine design or mothball Atlas V in favor of onramping SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 and, eventually, its Falcon Heavy launcher. There is little appetite for the government to support three launch vehicles in the coming years, especially as the Pentagon forges its way through budget cuts and questions on sequestration.

Orbital, which does not yet have U.S. Air Force certification for launching national security missions on Antares, is currently considering a domestic propulsion supplier for the rocket’s first stage.

Rogozin’s announcement, reported May 13 by Russian news agency Interfax, follows a U.S. ban on high-tech exports to Russia if such articles could in some manner benefit the Russian military.

Rogozin, who oversees Russia’s space and defense industries, and who in March was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department over Moscow’s recent annexation of Crimea, also said Russia will suspend U.S. GPS station work on its territory beginning in June if an agreement is not reached to set up Russian Glonass navigation satellite ground stations on U.S. territory.

"We are suspending the work of these stations in Russian territory from June 1," he told the news conference.

However, a U.S. industry source said suspending work on GPS sites in Russia would have no effect on the functioning of the system as the stations Rogozin refers to are used only for monitoring.

Rogozin also warned that Russia would not extend its participation in the International Space Station beyond 2020 as proposed by the Obama administration, which in January unveiled plans to continue operating the orbiting lab through 2024. Rogozin explained that Russia is planning to direct funding toward other prospective space projects.

In a separate statement, Russian space agency Roscosmos said almost 2 trillion rubles ($57 billion) will go to the federal space program for the period 2013-20.

"Overall, 1.8 trillion rubles will be provided from the federal budget to implement the state space program," Roscosmos said.

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Jura said:

I saw this yesterday ... it's out of my interest, don't know almost anything about space exploration (the only space program I tried to read about was the Soviet satellite system for attacking with the Shipwreck AShM) but I'll put it here anyway:

Posted on InsideDefense.com: May 13, 2014

The uncertainty surrounding the future of the Atlas V's Russian-built RD-180 engine and an escalating need for the United Launch Alliance to lower its costs in order to meet rising launch competition have pushed ULA to consider the implications of scaling down from two launch vehicle families to just one, a top Boeing space executive told reporters on May 13.

ULA, a joint Boeing-Lockheed Martin venture that has served as the Air Force's longtime sole-source lift provider for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class missions, builds both the Atlas V and the Delta IV launch vehicle. The Delta IV is powered by the RS-68 engine, which is produced in the United States. Roger Krone, Boeing's president of network and space systems, said during a May 13 press briefing that the possibility of ULA's narrowing its focus to the Delta family of launch vehicles is not off the table.

"Will we have a single launch system?" Krone said. "It's clearly one of the options that we're considering. . . . It's in the trade space. No decision has been made." Notably, Boeing developed the Delta family of launch vehicles, whereas Lockheed is the original producer of the Atlas V.

The Atlas V's upper-stage engine, the RD-180, has been the focus of a very public dispute between launch provider SpaceX and the U.S. government. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. Federal Claims Court on April 28, SpaceX asserted that ULA's use of the engine, built by Russian company NPO Energomash, violates U.S. sanctions against Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. The court initially sided with SpaceX on this claim, but reversed its position last week when it learned the Treasury, State and Commerce departments had not found evidence that Rogozin has any control over Energomash.

Meanwhile, Rogozin said during a May 13 press conference that his country plans to take action to block sales of the Atlas V's Russian-built RD-180 engines to be used for U.S. military missions. Boeing and ULA officials said they have not received confirmation of Rogozin's claims from Energomash or the Russian government.

The Air Force is analyzing its reliance on the RD-180 engine and is investigating alternatives, to include building a domestic liquid propulsion rocket engine. Service officials have said such an endeavor would cost upwards of $1 billion and take at least four years to field. The House Armed Services Committee, in its mark-up last week of the fiscal year 2015 defense authorization bill, provided $220 million for the service to begin developing a domestic rocket engine to replace the RD-180.

The service is also working to cultivate competition in its EELV launch business, and SpaceX's Falcon 9 vehicle is almost certain to be the first new rocket to achieve certification. The Falcon 9, like the Atlas V, is not a heavy-class vehicle and so cannot be used for some of the missions now carried out by the Delta IV. During a congressional hearing in March, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk asserted that should the Air Force discontinue its use of the Atlas V, the Falcon 9 would be a worthy replacement.

Krone said given the uncertainty surrounding the RD-180's future and the company's need to find ways to reduce costs in order to compete with potential new entrants like SpaceX, scaling down to a single family of launch vehicles is an option for ULA. Such a move, he said, would not favor either Boeing or Lockheed Martin as both companies have an equal share in ULA profits.

While the ongoing dispute over the use of the RD-180 is not a welcome disruption for Boeing or ULA, Krone said it would not impact ULA's contract to deliver 35 rocket cores to the Air Force over the next five years. ULA will be able to fulfill its five-year space launch contract with the Air Force -- finalized last December -- even without additional Russian-built Atlas V engines, he said, though the move would mean relying more heavily on the Delta IV launch vehicles.

"We believe we can fully deliver on the block buy with the engines that we have on hand, new production of RS-68s on the Delta and adjustments on the manifest to move some of the payloads that are dual manifested from one launch vehicle to another," Krone said.

The contract loosely designates half of the 35 cores to Delta IV and half to Atlas V vehicles. ULA has enough RD-180s on hand to fulfill about half of the missions manifested for Atlas V, but Krone said the remaining missions can be shifted to fly on the Delta IV. While some National Security Space missions must fly on either the Atlas V or the Delta IV, the Global Positioning System and Wideband Global Satellite Communications payloads both are dual manifested, which means they can fly on either vehicle.

"It's fairly easy to move them," he said, adding: "It's not our desire. We'd just as soon not move the manifest."

Krone noted that the manifest changes could be made without any adjustments to the terms of the block-buy contract.

EDIT
oops, it's early morning here, I thought I was in the US Military thread ... sorry for the off-topic post ... I shouldn't have gone into Space LOL

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SpaceX Expected to Unveil Manned Dragon Spaceship on May 29
By Mike Wall, Senior Writer | May 22, 2014 04:54pm ET
The world is about to get its first look at SpaceX's new astronaut taxi.

Next Thursday (May 29), the company will unveil the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft, which SpaceX hopes will be ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station a few short years from now.

"Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that ‪@SpaceX has been working on [with] ‪@NASA. No trampoline needed," SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote in a Twitter post late last month. "Cover drops on May 29. Actual flight design hardware of crew Dragon, not a mockup."

The manned vehicle is an upgraded variant of SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule, which has already flown three resupply missions to the space station for NASA. The company holds a $1.6 billion deal to make 12 such flights for the agency.

SpaceX has been developing the manned Dragon with financial help from NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to get at least one private American astronaut taxi up and running by 2017. The program seeks to end the nation's reliance on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which have been astronauts' only means of transport to and from the orbiting lab since NASA's space shuttle retired in 2011.

NASA's commercial crew program has also supported the efforts of other companies. For example, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. also received funding recently to advance work on their vehicles — the CST-100 capsule and a space plane called Dream Chaser, respectively.While Musk hopes SpaceX wins a contract to carry astronauts to and from the space station for NASA, he has bigger dreams for the company. Musk has said he established SpaceX primarily to help humanity become a multiplanet species — specifically, to play a major role in establishing a permanent Mars colony.

The company is therefore working hard to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets, which Musk says could reduce the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100. During last month's Dragon launch toward the space station, for example, SpaceX succeeded in bringing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a soft ocean splashdown.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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