1.   Defense Department officials blamed malfunctioning plumbing on the interceptor rocket for the failure of the interceptor to hit the mock warhead.

2.   In the test, an interceptor rocket fired from a Pacific island will try to shoot down a mock warhead in outer space.

3.   In war, an interceptor rocket would fire a small spacecraft known as a kill vehicle, which would scan the heavens for enemy warheads.

4.   It also plans to attempt to shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile with a prototype interceptor rocket next month.

5.   It is meant to fly into space atop an interceptor rocket and smash apart enemy warheads by force of impact.

6.   Its latest gambit is a plan for a new test site in Alaska, with a few interceptor rockets stored nearby for possible emergency use.

7.   Missiles launched from the Hawaiian island of Kauai or from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California were targeted by interceptor rockets fired from Kwajalein island.

8.   Pentagon officials said an increase in research money could allow commanders to expand testing of interceptor rockets and other components already being developed.

9.   That means developing and buying ground based tracking radars and the boosters for interceptor rockets.

10.   Twenty-one minutes later, an interceptor rocket shouldering the kill vehicle blasted off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.