Was the motion of the projectile, that blew up the death star in Star wars ep 4, possible?

sure in space there is no friction to stop a warhead from suddenly and rapidly changing direction, it would just need to over come its inertia and momentum, but if given more thrust in said direction it is possible but I don't think in the way the proton torpedo did in A New Hope, because there was no separate thruster mechanism to make it change direction like that.