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Flat-Earther's Steam-Powered Rocket Lofts Him 1,875 Feet Up Into Mojave Desert (latimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: "Mad" Mike Hughes, the rocket man who believes the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air Saturday before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. He told the Associated Press that outside of an aching back he's fine after the launch near Amboy, Calif. The launch in the sparsely populated desert town about 150 miles east of Los Angeles -- was originally scheduled in November. It was scrubbed several times due to logistical issues with the Bureau of Land Management and mechanical problems that kept popping up. The 61-year-old limo driver converted a mobile home into a ramp and modified it to launch from a vertical angle so he wouldn't fall back to the ground on public land. For months he's been working on overhauling his rocket in his garage. It looked like Saturday might be another in a string of cancellations, given that the wind was blowing and his rocket was losing steam. Ideally, they wanted it at 350 psi for maximum thrust, but it was dropping to 340. Sometime after 3 p.m. PDT, and without a countdown, Hughes' rocket soared into the sky. Hughes reached a speed that Stakes estimated to be around 350 mph before pulling his parachute. Hughes was dropping too fast, though, and he had to deploy a second one. He landed with a thud and the rocket's nose broke in two places like it was designed to do.
His big mistake was burning pine in the firebox. Next time, a longer-burning hardwood like well-seasoned hickory will improve the specific impulse of his Engine For Raising Aeronauts By Fire. I commend him for trying this approach for high aerial flight and not simply giving up after learning that Czar Nicholas had cornered the entire supply of cavorite he had intended to buy on the London commodity exchange.
I also recommend that should he achieve high altitude, he thoroughly seal his gondola with oakum and gutta-percha, to prevent the escape of too much air.
Did he prove that the earth is flat?
Of course. If you can't see the curvature of a 12,000km sphere from 1,900ft it's scientifically flat.
I installed a 24' diameter pool one summer. I had to flatten a 24' circle of it so at least that much is flat.
FWIW he beat both SpaceX and Blue Origin to a manned rocket launch.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
No, not only on Slashdot.
https://splinternews.com/tille...
You are welcome on my lawn.
he turned a goddamn mobile home into a goddamn launch pad
Breaking Mad
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Hey, he embodies the American spirit. The human spirit, really, in which your dreams are more important than reality.
"Old man yells at systemd"
It's pretty easy to doctor video these days. I rather doubt it happened.
"Old man yells at systemd"
>> This dude is a fucking inspiration.
You have a strange kind of inspiration when you fuck.
aaaaaaa
Do you see him get in? _no_.
Do we have any evidence that the rocket was not simply pulled up by a cable? _no_. There is a close-up shot where a cable could easily have been hidden, and a long distance shot that is very clearly made on a computer. Just look at that horizon! Are we supposed to be living at the bottom of a bowl?
And it's not even very good special effects, but I guess that's what you get for a home-grown production... Just look at that puny steam cloud. Is that supposed to be lifting an entire rocket?
Let's call it what it is: a fraud.
You have no idea how dangerous steam is.
It's at its most dangerous during the Summer and Winter sales.
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
I start to understand how something like Schwarzenegger could become governor in your state...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This whole rocket is bullshit. The easiest way to get into space is to just launch of the edge of the earth.
How many times have YOU wished a politician would strap themselves into a highly dangerous rocket and send him or herself away?
Now here's one that actually does!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley