NASA was sold faulty rocket parts for almost 20 years

Authored by engadget.com and submitted by stereomatch

LSP, along with NASA's Office of the Inspector General and the US Department of Justice, have discovered the Sapa Profiles falsified critical tests on the aluminum it sold. For almost two decades, employees would doctor failing numbers or violate other testing standards, such as increasing the speed of testing machines or using sample sizes that didn't meet specifications. They'd then provide clients, including government contractors, with falsified certifications. SPI itself was motivated by profits and the need to conceal the inconsistent quality of its aluminum products, while its employees were motivated by production-based bonuses.

Jim Norman, NASA's director for Launch Services at NASA Headquarters in Washington, explains why suppliers' integrity is incredibly important for the agency's missions:

"NASA relies on the integrity of our industry throughout the supply chain. While we do perform our own testing, NASA is not able to retest every single component. That is why we require and pay for certain components to be tested and certified by the supplier. When testing results are altered and certifications are provided falsely, missions fail. In our case, the Taurus XLs that failed for the OCO and Glory missions resulted in the loss of more than $700 million, and years of people's scientific work. It is critical that we are able to trust our industry to produce, test and certify materials in accordance with the standards we require. In this case, our trust was severely violated."

The company, now known as Hydro Extrusion Portland, Inc., has agreed to pay NASA, the DOJ and other entities $46 million. It's a tiny fraction of the $700 million NASA lost from the failed missions, but at least officials were able to hold SPI accountable for its actions. Sapa Profiles/Hydro Extrusion was also suspended from government contracting on September 30th, 2015, and it can no longer do business with the federal government.

oDDmON on May 1st, 2019 at 12:48 UTC »

So, if I read this right, “The company, now known as Hydro Extrusion Portland, Inc., has agreed to pay NASA, the DOJ and other entities $46 million. It's a tiny fraction of the $700 million NASA lost from the failed missions, but at least officials were able to hold SPI accountable for its actions. Sapa Profiles/Hydro Extrusion was also suspended from government contracting on September 30th, 2015, and it can no longer do business with the federal government.”

The company skated (6.5% of $700M), was able to rebrand, and continued doing business for more than four years before their malfeasance was found out.

In a just world, the company would be stripped of its assets and the owners held liable for the entire costs of the failed missions. If nothing else to serve as a message that fraud will not be tolerated.

VividVerism on May 1st, 2019 at 12:03 UTC »

The company, now known as Hydro Extrusion Portland, Inc., has agreed to pay NASA, the DOJ and other entities $46 million. It's a tiny fraction of the $700 million NASA lost from the failed missions, but at least officials were able to hold SPI accountable for its actions.

Awesome. 🙄

Really tired of seeing corporate penalties an order of magnitude less than the damages caused, and they just get to take their slap on the wrist and keep on making their gobs of money.

At least they're also banned from government contracts now, I'm sure that stings a little more. I wonder how long that will last.

UnrstledJimmies on May 1st, 2019 at 11:56 UTC »

They’re lucky it was an unmanned mission. If people had died because of this the consequences would have been so much worse