Hercules Inc. has accused rocketmaker Martin Marietta of deliberately withholding information about the Titan IV solid-rocket motor that could have prevented the April explosion of that motor during a test firing in California.
More than 100 Hercules workers at Utah's Magna plant were laid off nine days after the explosion, while Hercules searched for its cause - a cause Hercules says Martin Marietta knew all along.Hercules was manufacturing the rocket at the Magna facility but halted production for nine months following the explosion.
The accusation was contained in a $450 million lawsuit Hercules filed against Martin Marietta in federal court on Jan. 22. Hercules asked a federal judge to seal the suit while it attempted to negotiate its concerns with Martin Marietta.
When negotiations broke down, the judge lifted the seal on the case Friday morning. In the suit, Hercules asks the court to excuse Hercules from completion of the subcontract in its present form.
Martin Marietta issued a news release from its Denver offices that called Hercules' accusations "grossly exaggerated and meritless."
Despite the legal brawl, Hercules officials insist the trouble-plagued solid-rocket motor project is on schedule and will be test fired again late this spring.
"We are progressing in an orderly fashion toward the next firing in the late spring, and we have confidence in its success," said Richard Schwartz, president of Hercules Aerospace Co., in a Feb. 7 memo to company employees.
But the lawsuit suggests that a project already plagued with accidents has run into more trouble (see accompanying box).
After the Hercules solid-rocket motor exploded in April, the Air Force investigated the matter and concluded the rocket motor had exploded because of "flow restrictions" in the motor's design.
Martin Marietta discovered - and corrected - a similar flow restriction problem in the solid-rocket motor currently used to launch Titan IV space vehicles, the suit says.
The solid-rocket motor designed by Hercules would allow Titan IV vehicles to launch loads 25 percent larger than they can lift now. The government commissioned the design of the motor so it could launch larger satellites and military equipment into space.
"This rocket will provide the biggest - and heaviest - lift capability that the U.S. Air Force space programs have," said company spokesman Dave Nicponski. Hercules agreed in 1987 to develop the new rocket for $205 million and manufacture it for $517 million. Martin Marietta holds the prime contract on the Titan IV project. It gave Hercules the subcontract to design and manufacture the motor after Hercules underbid competitors.
In agreeing on the price, both Hercules and Martin Marietta believed existing technology used in the Titan IV's present solid-rocket motor could be adapted to Hercules' motor, the suit says.
The companies also believed that existing technology was sufficient to help Hercules identify problems with the solid-rocket motor design before those problems resulted in cost increases, schedule delays and major test failures.
However, both companies were wrong, according to the suit.
As the Titan IV solid-rocket motor progressed, Hercules and Martin Marietta ran into unexpected technical difficulties besides the flow-restriction problemdiscovered in April. Hercules had to bear the cost of those difficulties because its contract with Martin Marietta required Hercules to finance the initial development phase of the motor, the suit says.
In addition to technical difficulties and design problems, Martin Marietta further delayed the project and increased Hercules expense by failing to promptly provide Hercules with data on Titan IV's present solid-rocket motor, Hercules says.
According to the suit, Martin Marietta also repeatedly changed requirements for the project. From 1988 to 1990, Martin Marietta changed more than half of the specifications the motor must meet in order to interface with the Titan IV, the suit said. The changes required Hercules to redesign major rocket components, resulting in more cost overruns.
"We are extremely disappointed that Hercules has chosen to take this action," said Peter B. Teets, president of Martin Marietta's Astronautics Group. "Our top priority continues to be maintaining Titan IV's outstanding reliability and performance record.
"Despite the problems Hercules has had, the program is now technically sound, and we will continue to expect Hercules to meet its contractual obligations," Teets said.
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Trouble-plagued solid-rocket project
- On March 29, 1989, an explosion at Hercules' $15 million fuel-mixing facility in Magna prompted government officials to question the company's ability to meet the production schedule for upgrading the Titan motors. Congress made the government's purchase of future Hercules rocket motors contingent on Hercules' timely repair of the fuel-mixing facility.
- In January 1990, Hercules officials announced that the 100 tons of rocket fuel in the solid-rocket motors were not adhering properly to motor's graphite casing. Early reports said the adhesion failure could add $30 million to the cost of the project.
- In September 1990, one of the motors fell from a 400-foot crane while being moved at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. One worker was killed, and nine others were injured. Hercules and another company were cited for safety violations and agreed to pay the dead worker's family $2.4 million.
- On April 1, 1991, a Hercules rocket motor exploded during its first test firing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., delaying production work in Utah for nine months. Nine days after the explosion, Hercules laid off 120 workers at its Magna facility.