NASA Probing Lee Aerospace’s Bolts for Shuttle : Simi Valley Firm Failed to Conduct Tests for Which It Gave Data, Agency Claims
Lee Aerospace Products in Simi Valley is under investigation by the Inspector General’s office of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for selling allegedly defective bolts that were installed in the space shuttle Discovery scheduled for launch Sept. 29, The Times has learned.
NASA engineers say the suspect parts are not used in critical applications and do not pose a safety threat to Discovery’s five crew members.
Discovery’s two solid rocket boosters contain 1,209 bolts from Lee. Federal investigators say Lee failed to perform some safety tests on the bolts even though certifications accompanying the bolts said the tests had been conducted.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center tested a sample of Lee bolts in the agency’s inventory and found that approximately 15% did not meet required specifications, according to Wiley Bunn, director of quality assurance at Marshall.
For example, 3/8-inch bolts in Discovery’s solid rocket boosters are required to withstand 17,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. But some of Lee’s 3/8-inch bolts failed at 15,000 pounds per square inch, Bunn said.
Several Firms Investigated
The boosters themselves are held together by pins. Bolts are used to attach components to the boosters, and NASA officials decided to leave Lee’s parts inside because they secure what NASA described as non-critical apparatuses, such as cables and electrical boxes.
The right booster contains 614 Lee bolts, and the left booster has 595. Lee bolts account for approximately 60% of the 2,000 bolts inside the boosters.
Bunn said there are plenty of backup bolts in those applications should any suspect bolts fail. He said NASA’s safety standards are much higher than necessary to account for such problems.
Darrell Lee, president of Lee Aerospace, said his company is just one of many under investigation. He refused to comment further.
Lee Aerospace is one of three San Fernando Valley firms known to be under investigation by federal agencies as part of a nationwide effort by the Defense Department, NASA, Navy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to crack down on suppliers of alleged counterfeit and substandard parts which have been found in the space shuttle, commercial and military jets, and nuclear plants and missiles.
‘Mess’ for NASA
Federal investigators said many criminal indictments against counterfeit and substandard parts suppliers are expected to be issued during the next year.
Ten days ago, The Times reported that NASA had to replace 357 potentially substandard bolts in Discovery that were made by Lawrence Engineering & Supply of Burbank. NASA left an additional 430 of Lawrence’s bolts in the shuttle’s booster rockets because engineers said they were not used in safety-related areas.
“We went through a big hassle on all of Discovery’s bolts,” Bunn said. “There were thousands of bolts we had to check. You can’t believe what a mess this has been.”
Lawrence is being investigated by federal authorities--including the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, or DCIS, which is a division of the Defense Department--for allegedly falsifying documents that said its bolts met government safety standards.
“To this day, no one from NASA contacted us about removal of the bolts,” said Ross Arbiter, Lawrence’s attorney. “NASA has never advised us that any of the bolts failed and we have no reason to believe they would fail in service.”
NASA has warned its contractors about Lawrence’s parts through two bulletins. Bunn said tests on Lawrence’s parts showed that they were not as strong as required by government safety standards.
Receipts from a search of Lawrence’s offices, contained in an affidavit DCIS filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, showed the company has supplied some of the nation’s largest aerospace and defense contractors with parts for the last several years. Boeing Co., McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell International, Lockheed, Martin Marietta and United Technologies have all bought parts from Lawrence.
The DCIS affidavit, which is legally required before a search warrant is issued, specifically alleges that Lawrence Engineering sold what the company said was an expensive U.S. brand and type of bolt that was a different and cheaper type of Japanese brand. The agency also alleges that Lawrence failed to test the supposed counterfeit bolts but supplied certification documents saying they had.
‘Fill in the Blanks’
But Arbiter said Lawrence was just a distributor or middleman in the deal and not the original manufacturer. “If there was a deception, that deception occurred prior to Lawrence,” he said.
But Gary Davidson, former quality control manager at Lawrence Engineering, told DCIS investigators that the company’s certifications were “worthless,” according to the affidavit.
Quality control clerks at Lawrence routinely filled in test results on the certifications even though tests were not performed, according to the affidavit. One employee told investigators it was “standard practice” to make up test results and another said he overheard a supervisor telling employees to “just fill in the blanks.”
Arbiter said Lawrence’s employees have been misquoted by DCIS investigators. “We have interviewed employees making statements and none of them recollect it as it’s being written in the affidavits,” he said.
Earlier this month, a Canoga Park man and the company he owns were indicted on charges that he had falsified documents saying bolts he supplied to a NASA subcontractor had passed safety tests when they allegedly had not.
A Garage Operation
Arthur O. Sammons, president and owner of A. O. Sammons, a parts manufacturing company, was indicted on 26 counts of making false statements to NASA and 17 counts of mail fraud stemming from bills sent for the bolts. If convicted, Sammons faces up to 215 years in prison and fines of $7.8 million.
NASA said some of Sammons bolts did not meet safety standards.
The bolts were used in a space lab that is part of a space shuttle scheduled for launch in March, 1990. NASA is disassembling the lab to remove Sammons bolts. The agency said it will take at least six months and cost $1 million.
Federal investigators say A. O. Sammons is a one-man company that operates out of a condominium garage.
