A flight test of the US Missile Defense Agency's Ground-Based Midcourse Defence (GMD) system failed on 11 December when the exoatmospheric kill vehicle did not separate from the booster, in an apparent repeat of an anomaly that prevented separation in a July 2000 flight test. The intercept test was the planned final flight of the surrogate booster, used for all eight GMD tests since 1999. There have been five successful intercepts. Two new boosters will be flight tested early next year. One will be selected for all future intercept tests beginning late 2003.
Source: Flight International