Does anyone remember where, when, how, who and what this was?
Does anyone know under which mission this happened?
As much as that implies failure, it's actually a controlled maneuver called an "energy abatement maneuver". That's a ballistic missile interceptor and because it uses a solid fuel, if it needs to bleed off energy it needs to go into a maneuver to dissipate energy rather than throttle back.
As much as that implies failure, it's actually a controlled maneuver called an "energy abatement maneuver". That's a ballistic missile interceptor and because it uses a solid fuel, if it needs to bleed off energy it needs to go into a maneuver to dissipate energy rather than throttle back.
An antiballistic missile would never ever bleed of energy - they can never have too much.
True in operation, but they do a spiral maneuver to bleed off energy when being tested in areas where it's important to keep them from straying off the test range, such as Nevada. There's a video out there somewhere.