The U.S. Air Force and United Launch Alliance have a problem with the timetable for enforcing the congressionally imposed ban on the future use of Russian-made engines in launches of U.S. national security space missions. The ban, enacted following Russia's annexation of Crimea last year, will effectively shut ULA's most competitive rocket, the Atlas 5, out of what soon will become a hotly contested military market with the arrival of SpaceX's Falcon 9. The question is not whether the Atlas 5's Russian-built main engine, the RD-180, must go, but when. ULA and the Air Force argue that as currently written, or at least interpreted by the service's lawyers, the legislation leaves the company with just five RD-180s for upcoming competitive rounds of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program. The two are asking for legislative relief to keep Atlas 5 in the game until ULA's planned replacement becomes available in 2020 or 2021.
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