Kaputnik

America's answer to Sputnik rose about a metre off the pad, sank back, and exploded on live television.

The grapefruit-sized satellite was thrown clear, landed in the bushes, and lay there transmitting its beacon; it is now in the Smithsonian. The newspapers offered Flopnik, Kaputnik and Stayputnik, and the humiliation is a large part of why NASA existed within a year.