Boeing Threw Out Parts Bound for Space Station

Business Wire, March 30, 2000

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 30, 2000

Aerospace giant Boeing accidentally tossed parts bound for NASA's International Space Station into the garbage in last month. The company searched a local landfill in vain for two $750,000 air tanks BUSINESS WEEK reports. Boeing says they had been moved aside on the floor of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to make room for other work. Somehow, they were forgotten and hauled to the dump. This isn't the first time Boeing has lost parts. In the 1980s it threw out an 800-pound gyroscope. One Boeing engineer figures that the company loses $200,000 worth of parts each year. Boeing's contract requires NASA to cover "contingencies" -- such as critical parts that are trashed. But after trying to foist the bill on taxpayers, on Mar. 10 Boeing said it would pony up.