Audio: Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center on AEHF stall - UPDATED

Air Force officials said August 30 that an on-board thruster meant to send the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite into geosynchronous orbit shut down prematurely following the bird's August 14 launch on an Atlas V rocket.

The Air Force first acknowledged the problem in an August 20 statement, but David Madden, director for the Military Satellite Communications Wing at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles, elaborated on the problem in an approximately 40 minute phone call with reporters on August 30. Click below to hear the full audio of the press call.

The Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT]-built satellite, the first of a constellation meant to replace the aging Milstar system, is currently being nudged into a "parking orbit" of 950 kilometers, outside the effects of the Earth's atmosphere, Madden said. From there, the Air Force says it will husband on-board fuel and raise the first AEHF into the originally planned geosynchronous orbit, albeit four to five months later than anticipated.

UPDATE: For more:
- read Dave Madden's opening statement