MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) — Russian design bureau Energomash, the developer and producer of RD-180 rocket engines, will continue to supply engines to United Launch Alliance (ULA) for its Atlas carrier rockets, company's press secretary Ekaterina Zhdanova told a RIA Novosti correspondent Tuesday.
"We are working within the frames of the contract, no changes have been made to it for now, nothing was postponed… in 2014, we signed a new agreement under which we supply the engines," Zhdanova said, commenting on recent media speculation about the possible moratorium in cooperation between Energomash and ULA amid cooling relations between Russia and the United States.
Earlier on Monday, media reported that ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno stated his company was planning to move Atlas carrier rockets away from the Russian-made engine. However, he said that ULA would continue to buy RD-180s from Energomash for the next several years.
On Sunday, Russian and US physicist Roald Sagdeev told RIA Novosti that Russia is likely to continue supplying the engines.
The Russian-built RD-180, the successor to the Soviet RD-170, was first installed on a US Atlas III launch vehicle in 2000. It is now routinely used on Atlas V carrier rockets.
