Global Fastener News

Man Faces 10 Years for Faulty NASA Fastener

Jason Sandefur

A federal grand jury in Houston announced two indictments against a machine-shop owner accused of knowingly providing NASA with defective aluminum fasteners “that could have endangered the lives of seven astronauts who launched aboard the shuttle Endeavour in March,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

NASA safety personnel discovered problems with the fasteners, which were designed to hold cargo in the shuttle’s payload bay, during inspections in 2007.

The owner of Alvin, TX-based Cornerstone Machining Inc., Richard J. Harmon, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on two counts of fraud.

The indictment states Cornerstone was hired by a space agency contractor to manufacture “an aluminum cargo fastener” — one of four fasteners needed to secure spare parts for the station’s robot arm and parts for the station’s solar power network, according to the Chronicle.

Harmon allegedly directed workers to fill in a “gash-like defect” in the fastener with an unauthorized weld, and then failed to disclose his actions to Spacehab, the NASA supplier that hired him, the Chronicle reports. NASA inspectors determined the defect and weld cut the fastener’s strength by 40%.

Harmon supplied the part along with a certificate of compliance that required the disclosures, stated assistant U.S. attorney John Lewis. �2008 FastenerNews.com