very strange combat behavior -- please help

[Dogboy]

I just attacked a single enemy satellite with a large fleet. The ships that should have moved in immediately to kill the satellite moved in and just remained there, in a stack over the satellite, as it fired on them. Eventually, a kamikaze fighter arrived and rammed the satellite but not before one cruiser was disarmed and badly damaged, and another was damaged. I would really appreciate it if some kind soul could help me understand what happened. The game ain't fun when a huge fleet can be stopped by a single small satellite.
I am playing SE5 v1.74 with Balance Mod v1.14b
My fleet was organized into three task forces:

Task Force 1: Orders to attack at maximum range. Composition: carriers, mine sweepers, and seeking parasite ships. These all moved away (as they should, since none had weapons that attack satellites -- seeking parasites don't).
Some fighters had small electric discharge, and others were kamikaze ships with warheads. Both groups of fighters closed on the enemy satellite, but only the kamikaze ships attacked (ultimately killing the satellite).

Task Forces 2 and 3: Orders to attack at point blank range. Composition: cruisers armed with acid globules, plasma charges, point defense. All these ships moved into range of the satellite, and then did nothing, as they were being eaten up by its depleted uranium cannons.

I've verified that my point blank and attack maximum range do list "satellite", with "engage range" "point blank" and "maximum range", respectively. I've also verified that the ships had "autotargeting" on and "auto move" on.

Is this a bug, or is there some arcane explanation for this odd behavior?

Many thanks for any advice. -DB