I'm not celebrating the death of anyone - i'm not a monster. However, I do feel as though we should recognize Darwin Award nominees when they emerge.
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"Mad Mike" became a spokesperson for what I consider to be a very odd group of people who believe the earth, unlike all other celestial bodies that we can view , is flat. In an effort to prove that the entire planet is being lied to about the shape of what we live on, built his own rocket that is powered by steam in order to attempt to fly past the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space which is called the Karman line.
His launch started very badly as the initial propulsion ripped the vessel's only parachute off the rocket immediately at launch.
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Those who were invited to cover the event stated that the rocket flew straight up as planned but then arced and flew into the earth at a speed that no one would survive. It is speculated that the speed of the launch rendered "Mad Mike" unconscious immediately and even though I think the guy was a misguided dope, I certainly hope that was the case.
There are mixed reports coming out that say he was ejected from the rocket and fell to his death and others that say he was still in the rocket when it crashed. Either way, no one survives a fall from that height.
The rocket didn't get anywhere near as high as the top of the atmosphere, which kind of suggests that even if he had landed safely, this rocket didn't have anything remotely close to the propulsion necessary to achieve the goals that the guy was looking for.
This story qualifies as "dumb" because of the person involved but I gotta say, I admire his courage for sure!
