An investigation by NASA has uncovered that one of its former metals manufacturers, Sapa Profiles, falsified test results and provided it with faulty aluminum parts for almost 20 years.
Sapa Profiles faked the certifications for its parts from 1996 to 2015, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, for "hundreds of customers" including NASA.
The space agency wasn't the only client that lost out from this fraudulent activity, but it could be the one that was most damaged by it: NASA used Sapa's parts in the making of Taurus XL, a rocket that was used in two missions in 2009 and 2011. Both missions failed, causing NASA to lose somewhere around $700 million, Engadget explained.
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The company, now called Hydro Extrusion Portland, Inc., has since ended its contract with NASA. Now, it's prevented from ever entering into a contract with the U.S. government again, in addition to fines of $46 million paid to NASA, the Department of Defense, and others.
NASA's director of Launch Services, Jim Norman, explained that falsified tests can result in not only property damage and wasted time, money, and resources, but also, in this case, "severely violated" their trust in their suppliers. "NASA relies on the integrity of our industry throughout the supply chain," he said. Read more at Bloomberg.
