Firm Allegedly Falsified Test Documents : NASA Dismantling Space Lab to Check on Questionable Bolts
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is removing bolts from a space laboratory that is part of the space shuttle after the agency learned that a San Fernando Valley parts manufacturer had allegedly falsified documents that said the bolts passed NASA safety tests, according to an indictment brought by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham, Ala.
Workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have begun taking apart the space laboratory to remove and replace the bolts. The process is expected to take at least six months and cost NASA about $1 million. But NASA said this will not delay the shuttle launch that is scheduled for March, 1990.
According to the indictment, the bolts were manufactured by A. O. Sammons, a Canoga Park parts manufacturer. The company’s president, Arthur O. Sammons, was indicted Friday by a Huntsville, Ala., grand jury on 26 counts of making false statements to NASA and 17 counts of mail fraud stemming from bills sent for the parts.
Sammons had no comment about the indictment. “I don’t even know what it says,” Sammons said. If convicted on all charges, he would face up to 215 years in prison and a $7.8-million fine. He is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 15 and a trial is scheduled for Oct. 31.
NASA spokesman Dave Drachlis said the bolts conceivably could have posed a safety problem to astronauts. The bolts were installed in Astro I, a space lab that hangs out the shuttle’s cargo bay. Scientists will use Astro I to study quasars and other astronomical phenomena. It cost $100 million to build.
“The fasteners and bolts are used to hold together major components,” Drachlis said. NASA did not know Tuesday the precise number of potentially risky bolts that had been placed inside Astro I.
Teledyne Brown Engineering, a Huntsville, Ala., engineering consulting firm that is part of Los Angeles-based Teledyne, purchased the bolts from Sammons last year and began installing them into a section of the Astro I lab that Teledyne was building.
Charles Grainger, vice president of Teledyne Brown Engineering, said his company found a faulty bolt manufactured by a company other than A. O. Sammons within its inventory last year. NASA then asked Teledyne to survey all NASA bolt suppliers to make sure they met the agency’s safety standards.
Grainger said Teledyne Brown conducted a review and found that A. O. Sammons and five other of NASA’s 17 parts suppliers did not meet NASA safety standards.
Teledyne said its own tests revealed that 20% to 30% of the bolts it has been supplied by various companies do not meet NASA specifications.
Grainger did not specify what was wrong with Sammons’ parts.
