
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 12, 1990                   TAG: 9007120246
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A13   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

GOVERNMENT AUDIT: SOME HUBBLE PARTS BLUEPRINTS REVERSED

The company that built faulty mirrors on the Hubble Space Telescope also gave a subcontractor reversed drawings for Hubble guidance parts in 1981, according to government documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The backward blueprints drawn by prime contractor Perkin-Elmer Corp. forced the company in 1981-82 to pay the same subcontractor to rebuild a Hubble tower assembly part used to aim the telescope.

Lewis Rinker, deputy NASA inspector general, said the tower assembly guidance system did not cause the blurred focus on the telescope's mirrors. But the faulty engineering plans for the guidance part were drawn during the same period when the Danbury, Conn., company was grinding and polishing the defective Hubble mirrors.

The disclosure came in an audit released to the AP under the Freedom of Information Act. It is the first public indication that NASA knew nearly a decade ago of problems in Perkin-Elmer's work.

Errors by Perkin-Elmer, now known as Hughes Danbury Optical Systems Corp., also allowed a subcontractor, Composite Optics Inc., of San Diego, Calif., to make a profit of more than 63 percent rebuilding the assembly part, according to a 1988 audit by NASA's inspector general.

The audit also criticized Perkin-Elmer and other NASA prime contractors for awarding subcontracts without competitive bids and for overpaying some subcontractors.

Hughes Danbury spokesman Thomas Arconti said Wednesday the company was "in the process of obtaining a complete copy of the inspector general report and will have no specific comment on it until we review it."

The 1988 audit and two others released Tuesday night also said:

The purchasing system at Perkin-Elmer, which makes key spy satellite equipment, failed to meet Defense Department standards in February 1987. Rinker said that should have triggered closer supervision of all its government contracts. He said the Pentagon found the company was not properly justifying no-bid subcontracts or analyzing subcontractor costs.

Just before auditors arrived in 1987, NASA belatedly approved some Perkin-Elmer subcontracts issued from 1981 to 1985.

Four of 17 Lockheed Missile and Space Co. subcontracts on the Hubble exceeded normal profit margins. Rinker said Lockheed was seeking refunds.

The 1988 audit found that six of 11 Perkin-Elmer subcontracts on the Hubble had profits greater than 15 percent. The auditors calculated that five of those subcontracts produced a total of $98,000 in excess profits.

Rinker said in an interview that Hughes Danbury had been seeking refunds from the subcontractors, but "so far nothing has been returned to the government."

The audit said Composite Optics acknowledged it salvaged a significant portion of the backward guidance part. But, the auditors said, "Perkin-Elmer did not make any reductions to the subcontractor's proposed costs" in December 1981 when it gave out a new contract to rebuild the part.

David Chamberlain, director of administration at Composite Optics, said he doubted many parts were salvageable.

by CNB