RD-180 boosters are a key component of the US most powerful rocket, the Atlas V, which launched NASA’s first asteroid sampling mission into space on Thursday night.

"The expiry date of the license agreement is 2030. There is still time, so we will continue cooperating with the US, supplying them with RD-180 engines produced by Energomash in Russia," the engineering firm’s Director General Igor Arbuzov told RIA Novosti.

Arbuzov said Energomash expected engine deliveries to continue at a high rate in the coming years and partially into 2019. "I expect us to sign a raft of additional agreements to the existing contracts in the near future," he added.

Arbuzov estimated a total of 70 Atlas V rockets with Russian RD-180 boosters had been launched successfully so far.