Falcon I Launch Fails

SpaceRef is reporting that the maiden launch of the Falcon I rocket has failed. The future of space exploration will have to wait a few more months, I suppose. Hopefully this won't be too much of a setback. They don't call it rocket science for nothin'...
SpaceRef reports:

The Falcon I rocket was launched today at 5:30 pm EST from Omelek Island and climbed upward for around a minute.
On board video failed less than a minute into the flight.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's Vice President for Business Development, has confirmed that the rocket has been lost.
Just before the onboard camera went dead the webcam pointing back at Earth (see below) seemed to show some gyration of the vehicle.

SpaceX Reports:

Falcon 1 Maiden Flight Update: Posted March 24, 2006 3:00 pm
We had a successful liftoff and Falcon made it well clear of the launch pad, but unfortunately the vehicle was lost later in the first stage burn. More information will be posted once we have had time to analyze the problem.

---Elon

Sounds like the vehicle started to lose control and the launch safety official hit the self-destruct button (or the vehicle self-destructed on it's own). I surfed around and found some other recent rocket failures:

12 March, 2000: Sea Launch Fails to Deliver ICO Satellite

"I can only express sincere regret to Hughes and ICO for this event," [Sea Launch president and general manager, Wilbur] Trafton said. "Weve got a good rocket and weve got a great team, and as someone once said, this business is not for the faint of heart."

Maiden Launch Failures:
Ariane 5 Flight 501 Failure

On 4 June 1996, the maiden flight of the Ariane 5 launcher ended in a failure. Only about 40 seconds after initiation of the flight sequence, at an altitude of about 3700 m, the launcher veered off its flight path, broke up and exploded.
...
Ignition of the Vulcain engine and the two solid boosters was nominal, as was lift-off. The vehicle performed a nominal flight until approximately H0 + 37 seconds. Shortly after that time, it suddenly veered off its flight path, broke up, and exploded. A preliminary investigation of flight data showed:
...
The origin of the failure was thus rapidly narrowed down to the flight control system and more particularly to the Inertial Reference Systems, which obviously ceased to function almost simultaneously at around H0 + 36.7 seconds.

Dec 21, 2004 : Boeing Delta IV Heavy Achieves Major Test Objectives in First Flight
or did it?
Delta IV Heavy Launch Failure Investigation Continues

Of course there are plenty of other examples (the launch success rate for most space-capable nations is at about 90%.)


UPDATE:
Fuel leak blamed for rocket failure

SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who also co-founded the PayPal Inc. electronic payment system now owned by eBay, wrote on his Web site earlier this month: "No major surprises were uncovered in the course of the investigation." The company plans two more Falcon launches this year, according to its Web site.