Fatal crash of flat-earther's steam-powered rocket caught on video: report

[turbinetree]

Published 1 min ago on February 22, 2020

By Bob Brigham

An effort to prove the earth flat reportedly failed on Saturday.

“A man died in what authorities described as a rocket crash in the desert in Barstow on Saturday afternoon,” KTLA-TV reported Saturday.

“Authorities did not identity the pilot pending positive identification by coroner’s officials. Witnesses and news reports indicted the launch was an event hosted by local daredevil ”Mad Mike Hughes, an amateur rocket builder intent on proving that the Earth is flat,” KTLA reported.

Shocking video from the event showed a rocket launch, with a parachute deployed shortly after launch. The rocket appeared to crash in the desert, launching a plume of dust.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/fatal-crash-of-flat-earthers-steam-powered-rocket-caught-on-video-report/

warning this is not a pretty video...........................

[Jamastiene]

1. How did he think a rocket launch would prove the Earth is flat?

Maybe, I should not ask. If he thinks the Earth is flat, his reasoning abilities are obviously not that great in the first place. I still don't get how how he thinks launching a rocket proves the Earth is flat?

[mr_lebowski]

2. Their theory is that if you get to a certain height you can observe that the earth is actually not

curved (in the way it's claimed to be).

They have all this math worked out for it ... he wanted to go up and take pictures from that height to prove it.

[TheBlackAdder]

19. He only got up a thousand feet or so. Just rent a Cessna 152 for a $100 discovery flight.

[mr_lebowski]

21. Supposedly he was shooting for getting up many miles high ...

You know, in his homemade rocket.

[TheBlackAdder]

22. A homemade steam-powered rocket! 😂

[Scotch-Irish]

33. Bound to be a trump supporter.

That's how they think.

[OAITW r.2.0]

3. Simple! All pictures/videos of the Earth curvature/sphere-cism have been doctored.

[TheBlackAdder]

20. He shouted out: "The earth IS flat! The earth IS flat. Ow! The earth IS hard!"

[greytdemocrat]

28. LOL!!!

You are bad!! But correct.

Sorry, but what a moron.

[democratisphere]

7. Speculation.

This idiot thought if he got high enough off the ground, he would be able to see the edge of the flat Earth. Had to be a dumb arse drumpflicon.

[Ms. Toad]

16. Not the edge -

but the lack of curvature. His plan was to go high enough that he should be able to see the curve if the earth is a sphere. He was going to take pictures of the absence of the curvature to prove the earth was flat

[dalton99a]

8. Apparently he didn't know how to Google

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/balloon-camera-duct-tape-shoot-earth-pictures-space/story?id=10210658
Hobbyist Shoots Earth From Edge of Space With Used Camera From eBay
British inventor launches weather balloons 20 miles above earth.
By NED POTTER
March 26, 2010, 10:47 AM

March 26, 2010 — -- A typical space shuttle mission flies 200 miles above the earth's surface and returns beautiful pictures on the way, but it involves 1,500 people, puts six or seven astronauts at risk and costs, depending on who's doing the counting, close to half a billion dollars.

Robert Harrison got some pretty good pictures too. He did it with a weather balloon, a used digital camera he picked up on eBay and some duct tape.

"I thought I was going to get some nice pictures," said Harrison, a computer engineer from the British town of Highburton, West Yorkshire, "but I didn't realize I'd see the curvature of the earth, the blue band of the atmosphere and the blackness of space."

His camera rises to altitudes of about 20 miles over the English countryside. The price per flight: about $750.

...

"I know now for a fact," he joked, "that the earth is round."

[uriel1972]

12. Yes, but camera manufaturers are in on the scam

apparently. Don't ask, I don't know how either.

[Midnightwalk]

25. It's an optical illusion

They purposely use cameras with curved lenses. Obviously that makes distant objects appear curved.

Check mate.

[SunSeeker]

17. Google is fake news!

[yonder]

34. That's almost 10 years old.

How can one trust those old googly intertubes?

[Hortensis]

42. He reportedly joined the flat-earthers in 2016 after

he raised only $300 or so in a fundraising attempt. Their booster was about $7k+. And it appropriately earned him headline obituaries portraying him as trying to prove the earth was flat.

Hughes was scheduled to launch his homemade rocket for a new Science Channel series called "Homemade Astronauts," according to the Discovery Channel website.

Crashing out first means he also won't be running for governor of California. California's loss, not just home rocket enthusiasts.

RIP.

[RockRaven]

4. If this is the same guy who was doing something similar as a while back...

I remember reading/hearing that he didn't start out as a flat-earther and proceed to amateur rocketry. He started out as a daredevil/amateur rocketeer in need of an audience and income, and realized that flat-eartherism was fertile ground for crowd-sourcing his gimmicks/stunts. Absent genuine flat-earthers and "I'm doing it ironically"-types, he would not have had the funds to build his garbage death-machine.

But I don't discount that there are more than one of these guys in the southland deserts, so maybe I'm thinking of another person. In either case, when people say "what's the harm?" about dumb shit like flat-eartherism, point them this way.

I'm sad for the people who cared about him and will miss him.

[uriel1972]

6. even so called "harmless" con theories

have the potential to do great harm

[Jamastiene]

46. Especially when they don't do anything for safety at all.

Video footage of this guy from a few years ago show him launching without so much as a helmet on. That wasn't smart.

[OAITW r.2.0]

23. +1 for "southland deserts". I am partial to "rural wastelands", myself. nt

[shanti]

57. Talk about going out with a bang, lol!

[2naSalit]

5. Ooookay. That there looks like a bona fide Darwin Award winner!

I know a couple flat earthers, nice people, keep my distance.

[uriel1972]

10. Need to die before reproducing to be a DA winner...

Gallow's humour has begun to fail for me these days. I even care about my enemies too much let alone my friends, family and communities

[2naSalit]

13. Curses!

I forgot about that part.

[Jamastiene]

47. Hughes should get an honorable mention at least.

He didn't use a helmet or anything for safety.

[Lochloosa]

11. Darwin and Newton award.

[TheBlackAdder]

18. The last thing to pass through his mind. . .

.

His helmet.

.

[Lochloosa]

51. ...

[aikoaiko]

9. Its a sad end to a life, but not unexpected given the choices.

[MissB]

14. I don't think that's what they mean by flat earth.

Although in the end, he was pretty flat.

[ChazInAz]

15. My favorite description

In Ambrose Bierce's "Curried Cow" he mentions the handiwork of a particularly obstreperous kicking cow. "Gad! You couldn't have spread the old lady thinner with a trowel!"

[Eugene]

24. "I don't believe in science..."

“I don’t believe in science,” declared the 61-year-old. “I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air. But that’s not science, that’s just a formula.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/22/self-taught-rocket-scientist-plans-launch-to-test-flat-earth-theory

I'll admit that I underestimated his determined stupidity.

[dawg day]

26. I don't get how a rocket proves the earth is flat?

If he wanted to disprove gravity, maybe....

I always assumed most flat-earthers were really joking. But this guy died for his belief.

[jmowreader]

58. He wanted to fly very high and take pictures

His first attempt a few years ago got him 1800 feet of elevation, which is too low to see curvature.

This time looked like only a couple hundred feet.

[dawg day]

60. Thanks for the info. That sounds like the dumbest thing ever... why not just go up in an airplane?

Maybe he didn't believe that airplanes are really flying?

I'm sorry for his family. This is an example of how "belief" can be self-destructive, I guess.

[Docreed2003]

27. But did he go far enough to see Great A'Tuin??

[edbermac]

29. The Wrong Stuff.

[John Fante]

30. He dedicated a previous launch the Orange Anus himself.

So yeah, one less Trump voter:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/beta.ctvnews.ca/national/sci-tech/2019/8/10/1_4544279.html

[Jamastiene]

44. Bonus. n/t

[jcgoldie]

31. Maybe people who don't believe in science are better off not building rockets...

[Roland99]

32. Link to video at Twitter to bypass rawstory crap

Link to tweet

[Maru Kitteh]

35. Play REALLY stupid games, win appropriate prizes.

MAGA BABY.

[Captain Stern]

37. Wow. If it was ever ok to laugh about somebody dieing, now would be the time.

I said IF, dammit.

I didn't say I thought it was ok to laugh.

I was throwing out a hypothetical situation.

I didn't laugh about this story at all. Because that would be wrong.

[intrepidity]

38. Here's what was supposed to happen

Even with everything going perfectly, that landing was rough (skip to 27 mins in to see)

[UpInArms]

43. A clown show?

🤦🏽?♀️

[Jamastiene]

48. The argument between the two guys right before the launch about

what is and is not "family friendly" is hilarious.

[Raine]

39. Darwin's Theory nt

[yortsed snacilbuper]

40. What was he planning on doing about it, if the earth was flat?

Just curious?

[trusty elf]

41. Acme Rocket Company

Gravity is a hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooax! SPLAT ! ! !

[onethatcares]

45. I'm going to hell

but I'm still laughing at that.

Sadly, he was next in line for the orangeanus budget director. He was going to prove once and for all that supply side economics works.

[Jamastiene]

50. I will be right there with you.

[Jamastiene]

49. Some flat eathers on YouTube are already saying

NASA shot him down.

[elias7]

52. Yeah, just like they went running after the crash to help. Not.

[Baked Potato]

53. You can see the curve standing at the beach.

I’ve been to a few beaches and the curve is always there.

[Igel]

54. And another take on it.

https://www.space.com/daredevil-mad-mike-hughes-dies-in-homemade-rocket-launch.html

Part of a competition. And he denied that his 2019 attempt was based on seeking to proof flat-Eartherism. But in an attempt to ascertain the "real truth" (tm) we don't need the bits that don't fit.

[Bengus81]

55. They could talk to multiple people who flew on a Concorde and looked out a WINDOW.....

That YES Virginia the damn Earth does curve. But...I know,all of those Concorde riders would have been part of a vast conspiracy to convince the rest of us that the World isn't flat.

[cloudbase]

56. Made me think of this:

[struggle4progress]

59. "I fought the law of gravity, and the law won"

[dustyscamp]

61. One less fool

[img][/img]

[Blue Owl]

62. Flat-earthers all over the globe are mourning his loss

n/t

[krispos42]

63. How did he get FAA approval for this?

Also, I'm waiting for the flat earthers to start a conspiracy that the Air Force shot him down with stealth fighters to keep him from exposing the truth.

[X_Digger]

64. And of course all the flat-earthers will see a conspiracy here. n/t