Around 1958 - 1959, it seemed every day brought a new rocket failure on the news. It took a long time to get everything working correctly.
That’s just the way it was. Inter-service rivalries didn’t help much. But without those rivalries and failures, we might not have seen the birth of NASA.
Ah yes, NASA. What a great concept that attained such stunning successes.....and then it expanded...and got political.