Privately owned SpaceX sued to halt the sale of the Russian RD-180 engine to the United States on the grounds that it would violate US sanctions against Russia. Critics said that within two years, this could seriously damage both the US space program as well as national security interests.

The RD-180 engine is considered the best in the world and is the engine of choice for Lockheed Martin. The grounding caused by the injunction was protested and on appeal the ban was lifted leading to [today's] successful launch.

It seemed so normal... A countdown, a launch, a plume of smoke, and burst of flame that took a National Reconnaissance Office satellite through a cloudless sky. The rocket launch was smooth, efficient, and helped secure the United States, but it's also a story of the little engine... strike that, the big engine that could and of course, cooperation and US-Russian Friendship.

You see, this launch nearly didn't happen. A ban on the use of RD-180 engines by a US judge nearly grounded the twenty story rocket. It was all due to a lawsuit brought about by SpaceX who contended that the engine, considered there best in the world by experts like John Logsdon, founder of the Elliott School's Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, needed to be denied because of the ongoing US sanctions.

The government and NASA protested saying that the temporary injunction was misapplied and there was no violation of the sanctions. Logsdon says that the US needs these rocket engines and that it would take years to design and build an adequate replacement. Luckily, the government won, the injunction was lifted, and US rockets once again can lift off.

What's at stake here is more than the place a new satellite holds in our skies, but the symbolism of cooperation and unity that the US and Russia have in space.

So, next time you see a sparkle in the sky remember that it is the reflection of hands across lands, seas, and space and the hope of orbiting unity that circles man's stubbornness, pettiness, and rises above our political feuds.

Source: Voice of Russia