The Mariner 1 Space Probe was forced to self-destruct minutes after launching.
Designed to attempt the first flyby of Venus, the Mariner 1 was the first spacecraft launched as part of NASA’s Mariner program. While it was meant to launch on July 21, several failures caused its launch to be delayed by more than 24 hours. Within seconds of launching, the Mariner 1 began drifting off course, and course corrections seemed only to make things worse. The decision was made to abort the flight just 294 seconds after launch, and the probe and its launcher were destroyed.