NASA contractor convicted of substituting Chinese steel for space launch, then covering it up

Authored by msn.com and submitted by alc59

A 32-year-old man was found guilty after he reportedly purchased Chinese parts for a NASA space launch project and tried to cover it up.

Seongchan “Steven” Yun, was charged with providing a false document to a federal agency and now faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison, according to the United States Department of Justice.

Yun worked for the CBOL Corporation which provides parts and materials to the aerospace industry, including NASA.

Yun was responsible for a contract that would provide stainless steel tubing to carry rocket fuel in support of NASA’s Space Launch System/Orion project at Kennedy Space Center.

The contract specifically required the steel be provided by the United States. Instead Yun procured the materials from China and tried to cover up the foreign exchange.

Investigators found Yun had the parts shipped to KSC and created false certifications asserting the steel tubing conformed to all of NASA’s requirements.

“The NASA Office of Inspector General will continue to aggressively investigate those who undermine and defraud NASA efforts to build the SLS launch vehicle and it’s systems,” said Special Agent in Charge John Corbett, Central Field Office. “This jury verdict serves as a staunch reminder that such conduct will not be tolerated.”

Yun’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 2.

TrademarkDerp on December 24th, 2019 at 17:13 UTC »

There was a company in my home city (Rochester, NY) That did something similar with SpaceX.

They were falsifying inspections and when someone called them out on it they tried to cover it up. That didnt work and the company lost their SpaceX contract and the company tanked like 2 months later. Pretty sure the Lead Inspector also got hefty jail time because not only can that kill astronauts, but inspections that werent done can kill the maintenance workers, and if the ship gets into the air and malfunctions, it could kill people below too.

Moral of the story: If you have to do inspections on big expensive equipment, just fucking do it.

jim_br on December 24th, 2019 at 16:12 UTC »

The article focuses on a contract clause saying the steel needed to be sourced from the US, but was imported from China and the documents forged. What I suspect, but was not mentioned, was the tracking of the source materials and manufacturer also had to be forged.

One of the reasons aerospace parts are so expensive is not just the testing and certification process, but the ability to trace the part's lineage back to where the minerals came out of the ground.

SirDigbyChknCaesar on December 24th, 2019 at 14:23 UTC »

This is the kind of greedy shit that gets people killed.