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.

Comments

And then a hero comes along

[PopeRatzo]

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.

This dude is a fucking inspiration.

"Mad" Mike Hughes, I salute you.

Re:And then a hero comes along

[silverkniveshotmail.]

Of course. If you can't see the curvature of a 12,000km sphere from 1,900ft it's scientifically flat.

Re:And then a hero comes along

[PopeRatzo]

Did he prove that the earth is flat?

That doesn't matter. None of the flat earth stuff matters. Columbus thought he was sailing to India.

"Mad" Mike Hughes embodies the real American spirit. He had a dream and he put his life on the line for it and shot himself into the air on a homemade goddamn rocket. It's the unifying concept of Westward, Ho! except he was already in California and couldn't go West any more, so he turned a goddamn mobile home into a goddamn launch pad.

Jesus, if you guys can't see how magnificent that is, your souls have been hollowed out.

Re:And then a hero comes along

[PopeRatzo]

But did it really happen?

There were lots of videos and witnesses to his previous cancelled/failed launches.

This successful launch has no video (that's been shared) and scant witnesses.

Of course there was video. VIdeo of the launch and video of paramedics extracting him from the crashed spacecraft. More than one video, too. The main one was shot by an AP cameraman. All sorts of witnesses, too.

Where did you get the idea there were no videos or photos?

https://gizmodo.com/at-long-la...

Re: And then a hero comes along

[Anonymous Coward]

and yet from there he could have just taken the gondola in Palm Springs up to the top of Mt San Jacinto and gotten almost 10x higher than he did. Or hike to the top of Mt Whitney, and just look out to the east.
Or for about the same altitude, just go to Chicago, go to the top of Sears Tower. Tgen explain how on a clear day one can see over to Michigan, and reconcile why one cannot see it from Lake Shore Drive.

Re:And then a hero comes along

[saloomy]

I don't understand, 1900ft? There are buildings taller than that! Why the expense of a rocket? Why not go get on a hot air ballon? The rides are like $40....

Re:And then a hero comes along

[SirSlud]

Hey, he embodies the American spirit. The human spirit, really, in which your dreams are more important than reality.

Re:And then a hero comes along

[robbak]

He didn't believe in science like, for instance, classical mechanics, so was unable to calculate that he would only reach 600 meters. He believed his rocket would take him to space.

I fully expect that he will claim that he has proven that the earth is flat, because he would not have been able to see earth's curvature from only 600 meters, unless he wanted to.

Re: And then a hero comes along

[Balial]

But proving the earth was flat wasn't his original intention at all. He was trying to build this rocket for ages, then realized he could get the funding from flat earthers because they are dumb, so drummed up a bunch of interest and cash saying he could prove the earth was flat.

So yeah, some guy grifting stupid people for his own silly endeavors. The american dream.

Re:And then a hero comes along

[quantaman]

That doesn't matter. None of the flat earth stuff matters. Columbus thought he was sailing to India.

Columbus was a bit loopy thinking he could reach India, this dude is completely bonkers, there's no comparison.

"Mad" Mike Hughes embodies the real American spirit. He had a dream and he put his life on the line for it and shot himself into the air on a homemade goddamn rocket. It's the unifying concept of Westward, Ho! except he was already in California and couldn't go West any more, so he turned a goddamn mobile home into a goddamn launch pad.

Jesus, if you guys can't see how magnificent that is, your souls have been hollowed out.

I'll give him full props for going through with it, I thought the whole rocket thing was a scam. The fact he actually built a rocket and launched himself into the sky is an awesome example of determination and ingenuity.

But he's still loopier than a bag of yarn.

Re:And then a hero comes along

[nospam007]

"I don't understand, 1900ft? There are buildings taller than that! Why the expense of a rocket? Why not go get on a hot air ballon? The rides are like $40...."

What's so difficult to understand?

It's not rocket science, the guy is nuts.

Re: And then a hero comes along

[Calydor]

You have no idea how dangerous steam is.

It's at its most dangerous during the Summer and Winter sales.

Re: And then a hero comes along

[haruchai]

Not to worry, Trump will reward Hughes by appointing him head of NASA

Re:And then a hero comes along

[Austerity Empowers]

When dealing with flat earthers, attempting to use logic tends to backfire. It may seem obvious to you that "falling off the edge" is the best way to get in to space, they have argumentation about why no edge has been found. In general I expect that any given fact can be countered by fiction you cannot immediately disprove except by using evidence generated by conspiracists, such as, a globe.

For example, and I warn you that the rabbit hole here is real, they believe the earth is a disc, surrounded by a giant ice wall that we call "Antarctica", beyond which no one has passed. I suppose it was constructed by Bran the Builder, and no doubt contains the shoggoths documented in Lovecraft's xenobiology textbook "At The Mountains of Madness".

I'm not making (some of) this up:
https://wiki.tfes.org/Frequent...

Steampunk rocketry

[Applehu Akbar]

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.

Re: Steampunk rocketry

[bestweasel]

I heard that Trump is trying to persuade NASA to work with Mr Hughes to build the first coal-fired Mars rocket.

Re:Competition is good

[bondsbw]

FWIW he beat both SpaceX and Blue Origin to a manned rocket launch.