At a Glance

A failed mission in 2009 and one in 2011 resulted in $700 million in losses.An aluminum manufacturer falsified test results for 19 years, NASA and the Justice Department found.The bad aluminum caused a key part of the rocket to fail and doomed the missions.

NASA revealed this week that two missions failed because of bad aluminum from a company that falsified test results for 19 years.

Faulty materials provided by aluminum manufacturer Sapa Profiles Inc. (SPI) of Oregon caused , according to a NASA news release.

The loss of the rockets carrying NASA’s in February 2009 and the in March 2011 resulted in total losses of both missions.

The combined cost of both mission failures was more than $700 million, according to NASA.

Sapa Profiles, now known as Hydro Extrusion Portland Inc., and its corporate parent have agreed to pay $46 million to NASA, the Department of Defense and others to resolve criminal charges and civil , the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.

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SPI provided the aluminum extrusions used in part of the shell at the top of the rocket that covers and protects the satellite inside, according to NASA and the Justice Department. Small explosives cause that part, called the payload fairing rail frangible joint, to separate and fall away from the rocket.

Because the shell, called a fairing, didn't separate, it added weight to the rocket and prevented it from reaching orbital velocity, , according to a NASA summary of the launch failures.

“NASA relies on the integrity of our industry throughout the supply chain. While we do perform our own testing, NASA is not able to retest every single component. That is why we require and pay for certain components to be tested and certified by the supplier,” Jim Norman, NASA’s director for Launch Services, said in a statement.

“When testing results are altered and certifications are provided falsely, missions fail. In our case, the Taurus XLs that failed for the OCO and Glory missions resulted in the loss of more than $700 million and years of people’s scientific work. It is critical that we are able to trust our industry to produce, test and certify materials in accordance with the standards we require. In this case, our trust was severely violated.”

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According to the Justice Department, "SPI disputes NASA’s positions, and except for those facts admitted to in the DPA (deferred prosecution agreement) and the plea agreement, the claims resolved by the civil settlement are allegations only. There has been no determination of liability."

SPI has been barred from government contracting since Sept. 30, 2015.

“For nearly two decades, SPI and its employees covered up substandard manufacturing processes by brazenly falsifying test results,” said U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia. “They then provided the false test results to hundreds of customers across the country, all to increase corporate profits and obtain production-based bonuses. This proposed resolution ensures that the victims of this conduct, including the U.S. military, can replace faulty product put into the supply chain and help recover the costs foisted on taxpayers to investigate this scheme.