Man Builds a Homemade Rocket to Prove that the Earth is Flat

No, this is not an Onion article.

It's official: Real life has surpassed satire.

This man is about to launch himself in his homemade rocket to prove the Earth is flat

Here's an excerpt from the article.

Seeking to prove that a conspiracy of astronauts fabricated the shape of the Earth, a California man intends to launch himself 1,800 feet high on Saturday in a rocket he built from scrap metal.

Assuming the 500-mph, mile-long flight through the Mojave Desert does not kill him, Mike Hughes told the Associated Press, his journey into the atmosflat will mark the first phase of his ambitious flat-Earth space program.

Hughes’s ultimate goal is a subsequent launch that puts him miles above the Earth, where the 61-year-old limousine driver hopes to photograph proof of the disc we all live on.

“It’ll shut the door on this ball earth,” Hughes said in a fundraising interview with a flat-Earth group for Saturday’s flight. Theories discussed during the interview included NASA being controlled by round-Earth Freemasons and Elon Musk making fake rockets from blimps.

Hughes promised the flat-Earth community that he would expose the conspiracy with his steam-powered rocket, which will launch from a heavily modified mobile home — though he acknowledged that he still had much to learn about rocket science.

“This whole tech thing,” he said in the June interview. “I’m really behind the eight ball.”

I love stupid people. They make for the most entertaining news.

I admire it ambition, too bad he'll probably die.

I bet when this idiot inevitably gets himself killed, those flat earthers will scream that he got shot down by an invisible missile to cover up "the truth."

Too bad they're (flatheads) not all going to try. I used to work with a flathead, my suggestion was for him to just pick a direction and travel in a straight line until he reaches the "ice wall" (y'know, the one that keeps the disc earth's water from spilling over the edge)- this is much better. Whoever convinced him to do this deserves a pat on the back.

I have not seen any actual data on this, but it really seems like the flat-earth movement is growing. I hope I'm wrong.

I get that a lot of science gets politicized today, heck everything gets politicized. But I just don't see how anyone could still think the Earth is flat. You can see the moon, pictures of the moon, other planets, etc. Those are flat, too? Or they are spheres but just Earth is flat? I don't get it.

This guy will probably die and nuts will say NASA sabotaged him.

@judaspete:

Never underestimate humanity's capacity for wanton stupidity. You'll be surprised every time.

Doesn't matter if it's flat or not, Humanity is Doomed anyways.

1,800 feet will likely not be high enough to see anything. Mount Everest is 8,848 m (29,029 ft) high.

This picture is literally from a flat earth website (it's supposedly taken on the peak of Mount Everest):

And this is Mount Everest (and the rest of the Himalayas) from actual space:

The Earth is fucking huge, and seeing it's shape requires better perspective than the average flat-earther could afford.

It is, but growing from nothing of note to practically nothing of note isn't much of an achievement.

That Flat Earth Conference they just held only had 400 people attend. A single day of any comic-con in North America sees more people than that in 10 minutes.

I don't doubt it was organized by a bunch of very smart people looking to take advantage of a bunch of stupid fucks (tickets to attend were $109-249).

May he rest in peace, when he dies.

From the way I read the article, he wasn't a flat-Earther until he needed money for his garage rocket. I think some very slow people just got duped.

All you have to do is get in a boat, head away from land, preferably land with tall buildings. And after about 10 miles or so watch as they "sink" until they are no more. Do these people think the Earth looks like a coin? You can Skype anyone from anywhere and watch the sunset or sunrise...

You're right, from his perspective it could still appear that the earth is flat and only further his followers agenda or his own providing he lives but the logic behind it all is flat out crazy.

Godspeed.

I mean, he could achieve the same thing by buying plane tickets and choosing a window seat. also 1800 feet is nothing. I could drive 30 minutes up to a local ski hill and gain more elevation than that.

but building your own rocket works as well I guess.

what

there's got to be more to this

Is that true? if so I'm going to do that every single year.

I think I could live on 44k a year.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/flat-earthers-just-held-a-conference-and-it-was-as-ridiculous-as-you-think/

I'm rooting for him. Not because of the flat Earth bullshit, mind you, but because I really, really want him to build that rocket. It seems like a cool thing to try to accomplish.

The Earth is flat, the news is fake, My God is real (not yours...mine), Tax cuts to the rich trickle down to the rest of people, and the Earth is 6k years old.

We are fucked.

Now all that's left is for Shaq and Kyrie Irving to fund the project and go with. "See you guys in the atmosflat!"

Well maybe the earth is a flat circle. Did you ever consider that!? :P

@foxhound_fox said:

1,800 feet will likely not be high enough to see anything. Mount Everest is 8,848 m (29,029 ft) high.

This picture is literally from a flat earth website (it's supposedly taken on the peak of Mount Everest):

And this is Mount Everest (and the rest of the Himalayas) from actual space:

The Earth is fucking huge, and seeing it's shape requires better perspective than the average flat-earther could afford.

@Serraph105: Carried on the back of a tortoise?

No because the shell would be curved.

-Byshop

Damn... I got to read up on the Terry Pratchett series. I thought the world there was flat :P

That was unexpected.

It’s always greatly enjoyable to witness the product of incredible stupidity. My weekend entertainment is booked.

Steam Powered rocket?

I wonder why NASA & Roscosmos never gave that a try.

Because energy.

Not to mention the reason we dont see flat earthers making rockets, is because they dont understand gravity and this man clearly does.

"Fake! Fake Science! Those rockets are just for show! Dimethylhydrazine is mumbo-jumbo and doesn't exist!"

I should've probably added " [/ Rhetorical question] " at the end of my previous reply there.

Aw, shucks. Big bad government strikes again with their nanny bullshit. The guy's been told by the Bureau of Land Management that he can't launch his rocket on public land. Is this not a free country? Is a man not entitled to the fruits of his labours? This is why Trump won.

Did he do it?

It was postponed. He's moving it to a private land next week. He also had some engine trouble in his mobile home/ramp thing. He's moving 3 miles down the road and he claims it'll take him 3 days to setup.

Although he's only going 1800 ft up. Hell the Observation deck of the trade center is 1400 ft. Or he could take some pics from the Shanghai tower which is closer to 1800 ft I think...seems a lot safer. But at that height, he won't be able to see much curvature of the earth, overall the whole thing makes no sense really, I think he just wanted to use the flat earthers for their money to fund his hobby.

@pimphand_gamer: heh. yeah I guess it would be easier to just get a window seat on a plane.... or is that part of the conspiracy too?

The windows are LCD monitors playing CG video of clouds over a curved earth. I thought everyone knew about that?

That's only available on the Emirates first class seats.

Flat Earth is real. Round Earth is a matrix simulation.

Is he dead yet?

“Plus when we were actually ready to leave and go to Amboy the motorhome-slash-rocket launcher broke down in the driveway,” he said in a Youtube announcement.

Keep at it son.

Well. Less stupid people is a good thing.