Best launch I ever had was when two pieces on the bottom of my stack fell off shortly after liftoff, shot out sideways, then spun around and smacked into the center of the stack, blowing the entire structure to hell save for the command capsule and a single rocket immediately below it. So I pressed space a few times to eject the ...er... 'spent' stages and ignite that last rocket, but must have spaced too many times and accidentally the whole thing. The parachute activated and yanked the command capsule off to the side and detached it from the rocket, which continued shooting on upward. The Kerbals did not get to return home though -- a piece of the exploded stack somehow managed to fall onto the capsule during its descent. Death was instantaneous.
I have no idea if that last rocket actually made it into space, but I like to think it did. *salute*