COLORADO SPRINGS -- Industry executives are questioning the timing of the latest allegations against Lockheed Martin involving export control violations with China, saying the latest news is politically motivated.

"Why now is a six-year-old case headline news?" John Douglass, head of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) told SPACE.com at the 2000 National Space Symposium here. "This is a move by the State Department to effect a political debate in Washington."

AIA is a trade association in Washington, D.C. representing 57 aerospace companies.

The charges stem from a 1994 report Lockheed provided to Asia Satellite Telecommunications, a Hong Kong-based satellite company. The company is linked to two state-run Chinese firms. The technical report explained how to fix problems with a Chinese-made solid-fuel rocket motor used to position satellites in orbit.

Douglass and others believe the agency’s action is the result of a tug-of-war between the State Department and the Commerce and Defense Departments over control of export licensing to companies doing business overseas.

A year ago, Congress transferred authority over the licensing from the Commerce Department to the State Department. Congress acted on concerns that two U.S. satellite companies may have transferred sensitive satellite and missile technology to China.

"I think Commerce and the Department of Defense are beginning to win the battle, and this is the State Department’s attempt to make certain points," Douglass said.

And this battle begins on Capitol Hill in the Senate Banking Committee.

Last September, the committee passed a new Export Administration Act that called for a significant increase in penalties for companies that violate export laws and would put the Commerce and Defense Departments back in control over export licensing.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), who chairs the Banking Committee, has struggled to get the measure to the Senate floor for a vote, but has been stifled by members who oppose the legislation.

"So what stays in place are export controls that are held together by little more than gum and chicken wire," says Christie Harlan, communications director for the committee.

Douglass and others believe that this legislation may be heading for a vote soon and the State Department is rushing to gain some control.

The aerospace industry has been lobbying for changes in current export control laws saying U.S. satellite sales have dropped 40 percent since the transfer of regulatory control to State.

A few weeks ago Douglass told the Senate Armed Services Committee that 16 nations had written to the secretary of state saying that they were "no longer going to buy any satellite parts at all from the United States because [they could not] get the parts at all from the United States in time."

If convicted on all the counts, Lockheed could be fined a maximum of $15 million and be banned from exporting satellites or satellite-based technology for up to three years.

"It is a national security concern for us," said Patricia Scott, a State Department official. "Any assistance to China's technical capability, particularly in space launch systems, has the potential to be applied to missile development."

Lockheed, which has 30 days to respond, said Thursday it did nothing wrong in furnishing 50 pages of technical data in 1994 to one of its clients, a Hong Kong satellite company that was one-third owned by a state-run Chinese firm.