The future of one of Russia's most renowned space firms is in jeopardy, with the weight of Western sanctions, economic crisis and industrial decay coming to bear.
In many ways, the Russians brought this on themselves. For nearly 20 years, NPO Energomash has produced its venerable liquid fuel RD-180 rocket engine exclusively for export to US space launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) to power its Atlas V rocket.
That was until last May, when Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, angered by Western sanctions against Russia for the annexation of Crimea two months earlier, declared Russia would ban exports of the engines for use in military launches.
Rogozin is the government's space industry czar, and his threats made many on Capitol Hill, already weary of Russian conduct, uneasy. Russian officials in September changed their tune, when Oleg Bochkarev, deputy chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission, denied plans to ban exports.
"It wouldn't be profitable for us to do so. We produce and deliver the RD-180s, and they buy them," he said, accusing the US of trying to break the relationship.
But the damage was done. By the end of the year, Congress had banned future purchases of the engines for military launch, promised money to the Defense Department to fund a domestic alternative, and ULA had announced the development of a new engine and a new launch vehicle.
With the US rallying to end its dependence on such a critical piece of Russian space technology, Russia's Energomash is in deep trouble, said Yury Karash, a space policy expert with the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics.
"It will most likely be near catastrophic for Energomash and quite painful for the Russian space industry," Karash said.
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