>>...space-based missile interceptors — an idea that dates back to the Reagan-era “Star Wars” initiative.

Not... exactly 'interceptors' - at least not in the sense of missiles
Back during the Reagan administration I shared a house with one of the nuclear physicists working on the SDI (what the press dubbed "Star Wars"). The notion was beam weapons; one shot devices powered by fusion explosions, some of the energy directed by some kind of lensing (magnetic? An actual piece of material like maybe boron using differential pass-through time* to direct the beam?)
He was very much not supposed to be talking about it, but some things slipped out over the course of several months.
He said at least a couple of times that he was 100% certain that it was impossible with the tech we had then. A lot of what I gathered was from his going on about how hilariously (to him) beyond our capabilities it was.
I suspect the actual point was bankrupting the USSR - and we all know how that went.
*essentially how optical lensing works