Controllers rescue wayward satellite

DENVER -- Air Force ground controllers delicately rescued a $1.7 billion military communications satellite that had been stranded in the wrong orbit and at risk of blowing up -- all possibly because a piece of cloth had been left in a critical fuel line during manufacture.

During the 14-month effort ending last year, the satellite had to battle gravity and dodge space junk while controllers improvised ways to coax it higher to its planned orbit.

The Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite is the first of six in a $14 billion system designed to give the military more communications capacity than its current Milstar system as well as resist signals jamming.

Losing AEHF-1 would have been a costly blow. It would have delayed the satellite system along with all the related technology that will use it. It also would have raised more questions in Congress about the military and aerospace industry's ability to manage multibillion-dollar projects.

The program was $250 million over budget and two years behind schedule when AEHF-1 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in August 2010. As planned, an Atlas V rocket carried it to an elliptical "parking orbit" ranging from 140 miles to 31,000 miles from Earth.

Trouble came days later when ground controllers twice directed AEHF-1 to fire its main engine to begin moving into a circular orbit more than 22,000 miles above the Earth. Both times the satellite shut the engine down when it detected that it wasn't working -- a safety feature.