A NASA subcontractor will pay a $46 million fine after admitting to falsifying test results in aluminum manufacturing for nearly two decades, the Justice Department said Tuesday. NASA blames the aluminum parts for two failed rocket launches, something the company disputes and the Justice Department did not prove. A subsequent NASA inspector general’s investigation led to Sapa’s aluminum production plant in Portland, where a former lab supervisor admitted in 2017 to falsifying aluminum test results and instructing others to do the same. Aluminum extrusions used by NASA failed the agency’s own tensile tests despite having been certified as passing by the company, according to court filings. But prosecutors in Alexandria wrote they could not find the original 2007 test results to confirm that they were altered as part of the scheme.

Source: Washington Post April 23, 2019 23:26 UTC