Industry sources said the FTC investigation follows repeated unsuccessful efforts by Orbital to buy the RD-180 engines for its new medium-lift Antares rocket . . . To be a viable competitor in the future, industry sources say Orbital needs access to the RD-180 engine . . .
Sorry to reply to myself, but it occured to me that it's pointless to talk about this without knowing what RD-181 can do.An article at NK (main site, not forums) claims that RD-193 is 300 kg lighter than RD-191 and 0.76m shorter. I expect similar weight savings for RD-181.Nobody knows what Isp is.According to Brugge, dry mass of RD-180 is 5330 kg.
Isn't the RD-193 lighter because it doesn't need the TVC of the RD-191 since it would use the RD-0110R on the Soyuz-2-1v?
Aerojet buys PWR to create a near monopoly U.S. rocket engine company and, as its first order of business, dives in to negotiations to buy more Russian rocket engines. It is trading Energomash off of the potential NK-33 maker to get a deal. (Forget about building a U.S. engine.)Sheesh. - Ed Kyle
Officials are already reviewing alternatives, though the only viable option is currently the RD-180, Hamel says. Orbital has also looked at the RD-181, RD-191 and RD-193. These are either still in development, or not yet approved for export. The RD-191 is the propulsion system being developed for Russia's Angara rocket.
According to interview of Michael Hamel, "(Orbital's) senior vice president of corporate strategy and development", by Amy Butler of AvWeek my main puzzlement is answered thus:QuoteOfficials are already reviewing alternatives, though the only viable option is currently the RD-180, Hamel says. Orbital has also looked at the RD-181, RD-191 and RD-193. These are either still in development, or not yet approved for export. The RD-191 is the propulsion system being developed for Russia's Angara rocket.http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_06_24_2013_p32-590271.xml&p=2I never doubted that Antonio's colleagues understand the difference between RD-180/RD-191 branch and RD-181/RD-193 branch of RD-170 family tree. But apparently they do not believe Energomash will be ready in time and/or the story with the denial of export of RD-0124 soured them on the perspectives of applying for new export licenses.
The crazy thing, to me, is that all these options seem to poison Orbital's case about ULA monopolizing engine options. There are tons of options, and Orbital's position seems to be a temporary squeeze of its own making. And, to some extent, its own unwillingness to pay similar costs to what Lockheed paid back when--costs in both time to get export/import approval and a new engine variant tested, and money to pay for production and joint ventures, etc.
What exactly is the RD-181? I haven't been able to find any information online.