This mission was to test the high altitude launch abort test during, which as you'll see in the film, an actual abort situation occurred. The Little Joe II Rocket "entered into a roll which caused it to break up before second-stage ignition, and a low-altitude abort was initiated instead of the planned high-altitude abort. The launch escape system canard surfaces deployed and survived the severe environment. The high roll rates (approximately 260 degrees per second at the time of canard deployment) induced by the launch vehicle malfunction stabilized the launch escape vehicle in a tower-forward attitude, which overcame the destabilizing effect of the canards."