Jason Sandefur

A federal grand jury in Houston indicted a machine-shop owner accused of knowingly providing NASA with defective aluminum fasteners that could have endangered the astronauts 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 on two counts of fraud.
The indictment states 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. The defect and weld cut the fastener’s strength by 40%.
Harmon allegedly supplied the parts along with a certificate of compliance that required disclosure. �2008 FastenerNews.com