Hey, 60 Minutes, remember when the early Space Program had only success?

[yellowcanine]

5. And long before that the Vanguard Satellite launch failure in Dec. 1957.

Particularly grievous because the Soviets had surprised the American public by launching Sputnik I in October a body blow to American pride at the time. We were accustomed to thinking that the U.S. was first at everything.

In retrospect, the whole Sputnik/Vanguard episode is kind of hilarious, as illustrated by the following account.

On 6 December the US Navy launched a Vanguard rocket, carrying a 1.3 kg (2.9 lbs) satellite, from Cape Canaveral. It only reached an altitude of 1.2 meters (4 ft), fell and exploded. The satellite was blasted off the top of the rocket where it landed in bushes near the pad and began transmitting signals, leading to New York Journal-American columnist Dorothy Kilgallen remarking "Why doesn't somebody go out there, find it, and shoot it?" The American press called it Kaputnik.[5]

Imagine if this had happened on Obama's watch. Darryl would be issuing subpoenas left and right.