I do want to give a shout out to the cameraman. While the rocket never really went that far, tracking objects in flight with a camera isn’t that easy. This guy did a good job.
He wanted to ‘prove’ Earth is flat, like a pancake. But, yeah…
He could have clicked on the NASA ISS feed and saved himself a lot of time and money while seeing the earth from 420-430 km up, and still be alive. True, the earth looks distinctly round from that altitude, but he could have blamed it on fish-eye lens distortion. I can vouch for him from my days of sailing the Great Lakes. The water was clearly flat. We could no longer see most of the high points of shorelines when more than about 10 miles away, but I blame air pollution, or bad eyesight.
I think his ultimate aim was to get to about 65 miles up or somewhere around there, by launching from a balloon. This rocket was just a step in that direction. And his object was to prove the world flat by taking a picture of the whole thing at once.
To get that high, he could have waited until Blue Origin starts taking paying customers and bought a ticket on that. BO hasn’t published any pricing, but it’s likely it’d still be cheaper than doing it himself. Also, much safer. But I suppose not as much fun.
Darwin claims another one.
The LA Times story suggests that Mad Mike may have been knocked unconscious from the jolt of launching, as his rocket did have backup chutes, which did not deploy. Also from the story,
(Darren Shuster, his public relations representative), who did not attend Saturday’s launch, said the flat Earth argument helped drum up publicity and sponsors for Hughes, who made his rockets at his home in Apple Valley. “I don’t think he believed it,” Shuster said. “He did have some governmental conspiracy theories. But don’t confuse it with that flat Earth thing. That was a PR stunt we dreamed up.”
following several musicians, who have explored death as a career move.
I was going to suggest he really didn’t believe it and found some folks who would sponsor his hobby of building and flying rockets.
(Shrug) You go to bed with morons, you wake up with dumb.
They started slowly transitioning to the Science Fiction Channel at least five years ago, when they added woo.
They think that NASA is at the heart of the conspiracy, and wouldn’t ever believe anything from it.
Any estimate on the gees he was pulling on the launch?
I wonder if any of the footage from the external and helmet cams that must have been there survived? If it was recorded strai ht to MicroSD I bet it did.
Well, when I saw the news this afternoon, I must admit my first thought was “Can I be the first to mention it on that Dope thread?”
Forthwith, anyway, my contributions to the snark:
This article mentions several witnesses: Justin Chapman (the cameraman), his wife, and Waldo Stakes a colleague (collaborator?)
I vote for Darwin Emeritus, or Flat Earther Emeritus. Or Demeritus.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce — Karl Marx.
Well, his goal was to prove the earth was flat. But anyway — your logic is sadly impeccable. Mad Mike’s logic, perhaps was this: A view from 50,000 feet from a chartered jet, where he could see with his own lying eyes that the earth is round, would prove nothing. (Because evidence, even your own lying eyes, proves nothing, amirite?) Therefore, a flight to 40,000 feet would prove the earth is flat, but only if it really is, or even if it isn’t. (Got it?) That’s peccable logic.
BTW: The articles I’ve seen don’t say how high he actually got. (Does anyone have an article that says?) But apparently not even 5000 feet, as that was the stated goal here. Well golly, even I’ve flown higher than that, in an aircraft that wasn’t even so much as steam powered (photo). (No, that’s not a humble brag. And yes, one of the people in that photo is me.) We launched at 6000 feet and climbed to 16,500 feet MSL over Lake Tahoe. The earth is … spectacular.)
TV cameramen track golf balls that are invisible at launch.
Well really all Darwin Award winners are Darwin Emeritus, since their distinguished accomplishments by definition caused them to be permanently and fairly instantaneously retired from their chosen activity. In a case like this we need a Darwin Award with Special Honors for Great Performance, the latter justified by the exceptional stupidity of the mission and the spectacular nature of the honoree’s demise.
I don’t share the glee here. This wasn’t some hateful political figure, and it seems he wasn’t really a flat-earther either, just a quirky guy who wasn’t satisfied sitting at home on the couch. Obviously he knew what the risks were but it’s still terribly sad that he died in front of his friends and family.
here is the full video. Launch occurs at :10, litho-braking at :29. My back-of-the-shirt-tail math suggests possibly as much as 2900’.
Gees? I’m wondering how many Ohs he pulled, as in Uh-oh! Ohhhh shit! Ohshitohshitohsit!
Oh shit, you mean G-forces. 
A chute deployed at launch, which had to have been a malfunction. Was that his safety landing chute?
Seems likely.