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A small piece of cloth stuck in a fuel line may be the reason a military communications satellite hasn’t reached its planned orbit since it was launched in August, government auditors said Thursday.
The Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite is still expected to reach its intended altitude, but not until October, nearly a year late. The Air Force Space Command, based at Peterson Air Force Base, and the contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., devised a work-around plan to get the satellite to its intended altitude. A Government Accountability Office report said the blocked fuel line was most likely caused by a piece of cloth inadvertently left in the line during the manufacturing process.
