Elon Musk

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's almost like 1959 all over again, in a hurry to catch up, surface-to-surface launch.

Are you referring to the Nedelin Catastrophe?

No, I was thinking of the American panic after Sputnik and a number of our rockets (Redstones, I think? ETA -- on checking, at least one was a Thor, .gif below) would launch, rise a few dozen feet, and then fall back onto the pad. Atlas was involved in a couple of these incidents as well.

Thor: