spacetoday.net: Judge lifts injunction on RD-180 purchases

Posted: Fri, May 9, 2014, 7:21 AM ET (1121 GMT)
A federal court judge removed on Thursday an injunction filed last week that prevented the federal government or United Launch Alliance from making payments to the Russian company that manufactures the engines uses by the Atlas 5. The April 30 injunction prevented payments to or from NPO Energomash, which builds the RD-180 engines for the Atlas 5. At the time, the Court of Federal Claims said there was at least the potential for funding paid to Energomash to go to Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is one of several Russian officials sanctioned by the Obama Administration because of the Ukraine crisis. The court lifted the injunction Thursday, though, after several administration officials concluded that since there was no determination that funds paid to Energomash went to Rogozin, the sanctions did not apply to those payments. The injunction emerged from a suit that SpaceX filed with the court last month protesting the Air Force's block buy of EELV-class launch vehicles from ULA.