A former NASA subcontractor has agreed to pay $46 million after it was found to have knowingly sold faulty aluminum to the space agency and other businesses over 19 years. The scam resulted in two failed launch missions and more than $700 million in damages, NASA said. Hydro Extrusion Portland, formerly known as Sapa Profiles Inc. (SPI), agreed to the fine after admitting to falsifying thousands of test results on aluminum extrusions that were sold to hundreds of customers, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday. “Our partners at NASA and in the military ― as well as hundreds of private businesses ― put their faith in the integrity of this supplier and the structural integrity of its products,” said special agent in charge Loren “Renn” Cannon of the FBI’s Portland field office. “For almost two decades, this company’s greed violated that trust. Today’s proposed resolution is an important step to repairing the harm done.”

NASA Faulty aluminum was responsible for the launch failures of NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory and Glory missions in 2009 and 2011, the space agency said.

NASA blamed the faulty materials for the launch failures of its Taurus XL launch vehicle that was used in the agency’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission in 2009 and its Glory mission in 2011. In the case of the 2011 launch of the Glory Earth-observing satellite, a protective clamshell covering on the Taurus XL rocket was found not to have separated as planned after launch. With the covering intact, NASA said﻿, the rocket was too heavy to get the satellite into orbit and both the rocket and satellite plummeted into the Pacific.

Ho New / Reuters A rocket carrying the Glory Earth-observing satellite, shown in this drawing from NASA, launched on March 4, 2011, but failed to place the satellite into orbit, sending both plummeting into the Pacific, NASA said.