Government to Probe Maker of Hubble Space Telescope Lenses

Nearly two years after accepting technical explanations for flaws in the Hubble Space Telescope, the federal government is investigating whether the manufacturer withheld critical information that might have prevented costly and embarrassing failures.

A NASA investigating board found in November, 1990, that the manufacturer of Hubble’s lenses, Perkin-Elmer Corp.’s former optics division, ignored three test failures and did not consult its own experts in building the defective $1.5-billion instrument.

NASA engineers are designing corrective lenses and a crew of astronauts is training for a December, 1993, space shuttle mission to put them on.

The space agency’s inspector general, Bill Colvin, acknowledged Monday that a legal investigation has continued into the $451-million contract.

“It’s not a renewed interest; the interest has been there all along,” Colvin said after the New York Times reported that the inquiry has uncovered evidence that “important clues” to the flaw had been hidden.

The newspaper said the Justice Department was preparing to ask the company for substantial damages. Perkin-Elmer was sold to the Hughes Aircraft subsidiary of General Motors Corp. in 1989.

Richard Dore, a spokesman for Hughes, said the company had not been contacted by the government. The Justice Department had no comment.

The telescope, launched in April, 1990, from the space shuttle Discovery, cannot be focused properly because its 94.5-inch-diameter primary mirror is too flat in the center.