Elon Musk

[AFTT47]

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:

Yeah, being a space enthusiast, I'm familiar with those as well. The Soviet disaster just takes the cake. The first time I read about it, I was taken with the notion that the Soviets didn't do anything small. That was especially true of their fuck-ups. When they fucked up, they really fucked up!