MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has decided to stop supplying rocket engines to the United States in retaliation for sanctions against it following the offensive launched in Ukraine last Thursday, Dmitry Rogozin, director of the Russian Federation, said on Thursday. Russian space agency Roscosmos.
“In a situation like this we cannot provide our rocket engines, which are the best in the world. Let them fly on something else, their brushes or whatever,” said Dmitry Rogozin on Russian public television.
According to Dmitry Rogozin, Russia has delivered a total of 122 RD-180 rocket engines to the United States since the 1990s, 98 of which have powered Atlas launchers.
Roscosmos will also stop servicing the 24 engines already delivered, he added.
Russia had already announced at the end of February the suspension of its cooperation with Europe for launches carried out from the base of Kourou, in Guyana, in response to Western sanctions against it.
Moscow has also demanded assurances from British satellite operator OneWeb that its satellites are not being used for military purposes.
The operator, in which the British government holds a stake, for its part announced on Thursday the suspension of all its launches from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Dmitry Rogozin clarified that Russia will now focus on the development of dual-use spacecraft in response to the needs of Roscosmos and the Ministry of Defense.
(Reportage bureaus de Reuters, French version Myriam Rivet, edited by)
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