An investigation by LA Times revealed that a test of divert thrusters installed on the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) on Jan. 28 was not as successful as the Missile Defense Agency had claimed.
By U.S. Department of Defense [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Los Angeles Times found out from Pentagon scientists that one of the divert thrusters had failed and the “miss distance” with its intended target was 20 times further than what testers had planned.
The Missile Defense Agency refused to confirm whether any thrusters had failed during the test and added that “an observation unrelated to the new thruster hardware that has been investigated and successfully root-caused.”
Researchers told the news paper that the likely culprit is a faulty solenoid valve.
The Jan. 28 event as the first test of the new redesigned divert thruster.