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" sick " Mike Hughes , a ego - taught rocketeerand compressed - Earth cabal theorist , willonce again attempt to launch himselfinto the sky over the Mojave Desert on a steam - power rocket this Sunday ( Aug. 11 ) , hopefully reaching tallness of 5,000 infantry ( 1,500 meters ) before parachuting safely back to the turn , welcoming Earth . ( What areyoudoing this weekend ? )
Despite multiple blow anddust - ups with the Bureau of Land Management , Hughes rode his homemade rocket some 1,875 pes ( 572 m ) into the air over Amboy , California , on March 24 , 2018 , before plummeting back to Earth at 350 miles per hour ( 563 km / h ) . Hughes had to deploy two chute to salve himself from smash into the desert nose - first , ultimately walking away with just a sore back .
This Sunday ’s launch looks to be a routine riskier , with Hughes aiming to blast himself more than double as eminent into the sky before dropping back to Earth at around 400 mph ( 643 kilometre / h),according to a news program releasefor the upshot . As with last year ’s launch , Hughes reportedly made his new steam - powered skyrocket at home in his service department — however , he will get some help this time in the form of a portable pad , instead of having to panel - rig a peregrine home into a ramp ( as he did last year ) .
Will Hughes be able to see the curvature of the Earth from his mile - high vantage point , thus crushing his stated belief that our major planet is " form like a Frisbee ? " Not unless his steam - power gizmo outdo its reach by about seven - fold , carry him 35,000 fundament ( 10,700 m ) up alternatively .
But try out or disproving the Earth’s100 % confirmable roundnessis not the goal of this stunt , anyway . As Hughes has said before , he will need to soar past the Kármán phone line — thatcontested boundarywhere the sky ends and distance begins , roughly 62 miles ( 100 kilometers ) over Earth — to personally see our apparently potato pancake - shaped planet from space with his own eyes . To do that , Hughestold the Associated Presslast class , he wants to build a " Rockoon , " or skyrocket / gas - balloon - cross , which he can use to float high into the atmosphere before light the rocket ’s fuze and blasting up even farther . This Sunday ’s event assign himone small stepcloser to that ambitiousness .
Truly , 2019 is an exciting time to love rocket science while believing thateverything NASA aver is a lie .
primitively published onLive Science .
