- WASHINGTON (AP) -- An
interceptor
missile failed to launch early Wednesday in what was to have been the first
full flight test of the U.S. national missile defense system in nearly
two years.
-
- The Missile Defense Agency has attempted to conduct the
test several times this month, but scrubbed each one for a variety of
reasons,
including various weather problems and a malfunction on a recovery vessel
not directly related to the equipment being tested.
-
- A target missile carrying a mock warhead was successfully
launched as scheduled from Kodiak, Alaska, at 12:45 a.m. EST, in the first
launch of a target missile from Kodiak in support of a full flight test
of the system.
-
- However, the agency said the ground-based interceptor
"experienced an anomaly shortly before it was to be launched"
from the Ronald Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific
Ocean 16 minutes after the target missile left Alaska.
-
- An announcement said the interceptor experienced an
automatic
shutdown "due to an unknown anomaly."
-
- The agency gave no other details and said program
officials
will review pre-launch data to determine the cause for the shutdown.
-
- The military is in final preparations to activate missile
defenses designed to protect against an intercontinental ballistic missile
attack from North Korea or elsewhere in eastern Asia.
-
- Wednesday's test was to have been the first in which
the interceptor used the same booster rocket that the operational system
would use.
-
- In earlier testing of tracking and targeting systems,
which critics derided as highly scripted, missile interceptors went
five-for-eight
in hitting target missiles.
-
- http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/15/
- missile.defense.ap/index.html
|
