Panel Says NASA Paid Thiokol Award Despite Boosters’ Flaws

Morton Thiokol Inc., the maker of space shuttle boosters, was not penalized for numerous problems with the rockets but received a multimillion-dollar incentive award from NASA, a congressional report says.

“One must not fault Thiokol for collecting the bonus,” the recent report by the House Science and Technology Committee said. “One must fault NASA for allowing the bonus to be collected at all.”

The award was earned before the January destruction of the shuttle Challenger, which was blamed on a leak in a joint on the right rocket booster, Robert Ketcham, general counsel of the committee, said Tuesday.

Last Payment in May

He said Morton Thiokol received $34.1 million under the award-incentive plan, but that he was told by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration there have been no payments since May.

The report said that “under its NASA contract, Thiokol was never penalized for any of the numerous SRB (solid rocket booster) flight anomalies. The booster joint had never worked as intended, nor was its behavior at ignition ever clearly understood.”

There had been more than 25 instances of leaks past the booster’s O-ring seals at the time of accident, the report said, and the rate had been increasing since Morton Thiokol had received its production contract in 1983.

Questions Size of Fee

“The seal problem was serious enough to lead both to briefings at headquarters and to establishment of a redesign task force. Yet, in spite of all these problems, Thiokol was eligible to receive a near-maximum incentive fee of approximately $75 million,” the study said.

Thomas Russell, a Thiokol vice president, disputed that amount. “We’re not sure of where they got the number of $75 million,” he said.