Tag: rocket engine

But they are more than that: They are a near term worry for all Americans now, as North Korea continues to test missiles capable of hitting the United States. In reality, Russian-made rocket engines, in this case the RD-250 – whether made in Russia or Ukraine – appears to be the answer. Both the Russian-made RD-180 engines, which America uses to launch our Atlas V rockets and the RD-250, implicated here – are heavy lift, Russian-made rocket engines.They are generally reliable, and until recently not sold abroad. If not controlled by Russia, Ukraine or America, they are the ultimate enemy of ICBM non-proliferation. Put differently, if Russia or Ukraine cannot prevent the illicit sale of these rocket engines to countries like North Korea, the United States should be seeking to buy them. These should be promptly lifted, not to help Russia – but to prevent Russia or Ukraine from selling or allowing the theft of these engines, preventing them from getting to a black-market that apparently includes North Korea. The reality is that these engines are not only valuable for US launches of satellites requiring “heavy lift,” since we do not yet have our own heavy lift engines, but permitting them to reach the black market is a double loss: Countries like North Korea can come into possession of them, and then directly threaten all Americans. The way forward must be to lift limits on American purchases, stop the black market from gaining access to these heavy lift engines, and doing all in our power to immobilize the heavy lift Russian-made rocket engines that, by all appearances, have already reached North Korea. As the New York Times reported, not only is North Korea now testing “an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears able to reach the United States” and affirming that this “was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines” with a Russian or Ukrainian origin, but the future will be defined by what policy makers do now. Instead of demonstrating foresight, Congress has been feuding internally about how many heavy lift rocket engines made by Russia NOT to buy.