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The Raptor, SpaceX's engine used to power the upcoming Starship, has been reaching new levels of power during its development. On Monday, CEO Elon Musk announced that the engine reached 330 bar of chamber pressure without exploding. That's 31 bar higher than what the engine achieved back in February 2019, when it beat the previous record-holder for an operational engine, Russia's RD-180. Teslarati noted that the engine beat the Soviet Union's RD-701 engine, which at 300 bar, previously held the public record for the highest combustion chamber pressure for an orbital-class rocket.

The outcome of dueling versions of the National Defense Authorization Act could determine how much the U.S. lines Russia's pockets before what some lawmakers hope is a speedy transition to a domestically produced rocket engine. The RD-180 engine is built by NPO Energomash, a manufacturer mostly owned by the Russian Federation. It's used in the Atlas V rocket, built by Lockheed Martin and Boeing's United Launch Alliance. The House version of the NDAA approves all of the 18 requested engines. In the Senate, where there has been a lengthy battle over buying from Russia, the NDAA authorizes nine engines. Either...

The DoD IG opened an investigation today, regarding allegations made by former United Launch Alliance (ULA) vice president Brett Tobey. DoD IG will be looking into national security space launch protocols. This investigation will include, but is not limited to, site visits, interviews and documentation review with DoD and ULA personnel. http://spaceksc.blogspot.com/2016/02/lipstick-on-pig.html "We all agree" that we must end dependence on Russia RD-180 (kerosene/LOX), and make our own (Hydrogen/Lox),engines here in the U.S.

Space makes for strange relationships. With NASA’s Space Shuttle shuttered since 2011, American astronauts have hitched rides to the International Space Station inside Russian Soyuz rockets for the past four years. But ever since Russia claimed Crimea and supported a separatist movement in Ukraine, the United States and Russia haven’t exactly been on great terms. Congress passed punitive sanctions on Russia, and in retaliation, Russia forbade the sale of rocket engines to the American military. Yet the Pentagon, which is currently supplying the Ukrainian military with vehicles, now needs a little help getting its military satellites to space. So it's...

In a surprise turn of events, U.S. space industry behemoth United Launch Alliance, or ULA, and Blue Origin — a secretive space startup owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos — have unveiled an American rocket engine that may end Russia's supremacy in the field. [....] The development of the engine, known as the Blue Engine 4, or BE-4, will certainly strike NPO Energomash, Russia's premier rocket engine design firm, analysts say.

Something stinks here. And it’s more than just wastewater from the marshy ground in and around Washington, DC. When a commercial airline is shot out of the sky it immediately triggers a number of questions. What kind of projectile? Where did it come from? Who fired it? All of these questions are answered by spy satellites. But getting one of these expensive satellites into orbit requires we launch a rocket. At present, the United States is buying rocket engines from Russia for these critical national security launches . That is right. Even while a domestic supply of launch vehicles is...

Lawmakers and top military officials on Wednesday expressed fears that friction with Russia could someday leave the United States without the power to launch rockets into space. Reliance on a single Russian engine to launch many critical military satellites could come back to haunt the U.S., officials said, if tensions between the two nations continue to rise. “If you consider space a national security priority, then you absolutely have to consider assured access to space a national security priority,” Gen. William Shelton, commander of the Air Force’s space command, testified in a joint Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. “Given that...

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the country’s space sector, said he would ban exports of Russian-made rocket engines used to launch U.S. military satellites. Rogozin also said via Twitter that Russia does not intend to continue cooperating with the United States on the International Space Station program beyond 2020. The White House has proposed extending station operations to 2024 and has been working to bring the program's international partners onboard. The rocket engine in question is the RD-180, which is used to power the first stage of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket, one of the U.S....

Moscow is banning Washington from using Russian-made rocket engines, which the US has used to deliver its military satellites into orbit, said Russia’s Deputy PM, Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of space and defense industries. According to Rogozin, Russia is also halting the operation of all American GPS stations on its territory from June 1. DETAILS TO FOLLOW

World Leadership: In retaliation for imposing sanctions over Ukraine, Moscow will bar our use of its rocket engines in launching U.S. military satellites and deny the U.S. use of the International Space Station. It may come as news to some that the nation that once used the massive Saturn V launch vehicle to put men on the moon now imports Russian rocket engines, but we do. That supply is to be cut off in response to the sanctions imposed by President Obama in response to Moscow's annexation of Crimea and its actions against Ukraine. Also to be cut off is...

Russia will reject a US request to use the International Space Station after 2020 in retaliation for trade sanctions imposed over Russia's aggressive annexation of Crimea, its deputy prime minister announced today. The space station is maintained by both American and Russian crews. But because NASA's shuttle program was decommissioned in 2011, the only way to get there is on board Russian spacecraft. The US currently pays Russia $60 million per person to ferry its astronauts to the space station, and had planned to continue working on it until 2024. "The Russian segment can exist independently from the American one....

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAAY) - As conflict in the Ukraine heats-up, Russia is trying to keep the U.S. at bay, by terminating a partnership with NASA. "This is an issue we have to address if we are going to maintain America’s preeminence in space," said U.S. Rep Mo Brooks (R-5thDistrict). 
Russia has threatened to stop selling RD-180 rocket engines to the U.S., and to stop allowing U.S. astronauts to use their rockets to go to the International Space Station in 2020. "What you are seeing is the International Space Station and our military satellites have been caught up in a game...

How Russia could strangle the US space program Jean MacKenzie If you use a cellphone, have a GPS system in your car, or get cash from ATMs, you should be worried. BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — Think Russia has no way to put pressure on the United States? Think again. The US relies heavily on Russia to furnish the engines that power rockets that deliver both military and civil payloads into space. This includes GPS systems in cars and cellphones, and even systems that allow ATMs to function. Weather satellites are launched into space via Russian-powered rockets, and military systems such...

Russians getting ready to launch. Live at link.