DENVER—Government auditors say a piece of cloth stuck in a fuel line may have been the reason a military communications satellite hasn’t yet reached its planned orbit after launch last August.
A Government Accountability Office report released Thursday says the cloth was likely left by accident during the manufacturing process.
The Air Force Space Command, based at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., and contractor Lockheed Martin came up with a work-around plan and say the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite will reach its orbit this year.
Lockheed Martin says there is no “smoking gun” but says the problem was likely an unspecified foreign object in the fuel line.
Air Force officials said they weren’t immediately prepared to comment.
Two more versions of the satellite are planned for launch in 2012.
![[prison 19] Caption: This is Cellhouse 1, Pod A, from ground level inside the Sterling Correctional Facility which is located outside of Sterling, Colorado Thursday afternoon. Photographer: LEW SHERMAN Title: FREELANCE Credit: SPECIAL TO THE POST City: Sterling State: CO Country: USA Date: 19990617 ObjectName: prison 19 Keyword: PUBDATE____1999_06_22](/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20151207__denverpostp1.jpg?w=538 "20151207__denverpost~p1.jpg")
