The NK-33 engines blew up after they were refurbished by a U.S. and an Ukrainian company, FACT.
Rule nr.1 in rocket tech is if you cant copy it you shouldnt mod it either.
Now the company bought the brand new RD-181 from Russia:)
The Antares will be a success story just like the Atlas V thanks to Russia.

The RD-180 is based on the RD-170 wich were the liquid boosters on the Energia carrier system, the RD-180 is basically a light cut in half eco version of it and it still outperforms everything the U.S. currently has in the medium lift category, the RD-170 is 70/80’s tech the RD-180 is late 80’s-90’s, tech the Russians gave the U.S. the blueprints the metallurgy, even Russian scientists to teach them the know how, they still couldnt copy it, now they are buying it by the $billions from Russia.
According to United Launch Alliance and NASA the U.S. wont be able to produce an engine of similar capebiltiy till at least 2020, that means the Russians are around 30 years ahead of the U.S. in rocket tech, and thats a conservative estimate.
But hey, keep believeing that you are the mucho macho the numero uno, the Romans did tha same…Good news for the rest of the World:)

You are living in a dreamworld, the U.S. cant even copy the RD-180, and yes they tried, so they are paying heavy $billions to Russia for each engine, United Launch Alliance bought 40 engines in the summer and they are buying another 20 early in 2016, Cöngress tried to veto it but after they realized that there is no U.S. alternatives they lifted the ban.
While the U.S. walked on the Moon, if you belive that, lol, the Russians mastered reliable high powered every day practical use of commercial rocket carriers and space stations, the core of the ISS is Russian as well (ROS).

Thats a solution to a problem that never existed in the first place.
Russians can launch cheaper even without landing their first stage again, you also forget that the U.S. gvot is giving billions to SpaceX, on paper it all looks good but if you take into consideration all the billions payed by you and all the taxpayers in the U.S. than they arent cheaper than the Russians at all.
A Falcon 9 needs 9 engines strapped together while an Atlas V powered by a single Russian RD-180 has the same thrust.
SpaceX cant transport people either, all the astro and cosmonauts are being launched by Russia as well as 70% of the cargo.

Correction to the above: The author is quoting a counter-terrorism analyst who used to be a US Army psychological warfare officer. The author is still an idiot because he is sourcing his information from someone who don’t know what they’re talking about. His source is quite the idiot too!