Well, respect for having the guts to put his own life on the line, to prove his theory.
But all he did was proving Darwin right.
If you watch the. video, that thing took off very fast…must have been some serious Gs…wonder if he was still conscious when he hit.
Looks accurate - you can see the parachute come off on launch on the twitter video:
Chapman said Hughes’s team argued against him using a steel ladder to climb into the rocket’s cockpit, worried the rocket would hit the ladder on launch.
“The rocket did in fact hit the ladder and ripped off one of the parachute cans,” Chapman said. “And the parachute deployed and got caught in the thrust of the rocket and pulled the rocket off course. It shot up extremely high and then it did an arc and then nosedived straight down into the desert floor.”
I think that while most of us admire explorers, the terms daredevil and flatearther are probably best not linked with human-piloted rocket designer.
Guess he really blew that one.
Hey, went out in a rush and a blaze of glory and infamy and even got a darwin award for his effort! It beats dying in filth and agony of old age ailments. Beats it by a long shot.
I want to live to 95 and die in bed…shot by a jealous husband. 
Hidden for language
What’s wrong with an enraged father?
Being a KSP player, I identify with that!
Seriously though, regardless of how off the wall Mr Hughes was with his flat Earth beliefs, this is a tragic accident. I have to admire his courage strapping into a self designed steam rocket. That takes big brassy ones any way you look at it.
I’ve always wondered about this, but if he was 64 and already had kids, then probably he didn’t? 
Anyway, no disrespect intended to the poor guy, as I imaging there are worse and less exciting ways to go. Die like you want to live I guess, so good on him.
Yeah, I joke [?] with my wife all the time: Well we either give it all to the gov’t or we give it all to the insurance companies. So, when it’s time for diapers, I’m taking up sky-diving (or rocketry now?); some day I’ll forget something and it will be over, quick.
Used to be your run-of-the-mill life insurance would cover this, but they’ve gotten wise to those who want an early out. One might think this easy decision should you develop something like Alzheimer’s, rather than let your family watch you deteriorate. But go on a skydive and forget to throw the hacky sack and your relatives will have a difficult time claiming it was an accident. At least it will be over in a nanosecond and at the time of your choosing.
I know this is going to sound weird, but I’m shocked and kinda appalled that someone was ready and willing to post a video of someone they knew dying on social media for everyone in the world to see…
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world , That has such people in’t!
-William Shakespeare
(…from his Facebook page)
There actually are videos of the vehicle hitting the ground.
I chose one from a news station that froze things just before impact, but other videos are out there, and once on the net, they are there forevermore.
I guess i’m a bit desensitized. The web is honestly full of videos documenting our more daring brethren pitting themselves against death. And the stark results of their failures.
I watched the video of it hitting the ground. Not much to see. There are worse-much more upsetting-videos out there. Some of the old film from the early days of aviation seem much more distressing.
Well, that depends on how his offspring fares. But maybe their mother isn’t genetically prone to proving already proven facts, in extremely dangerous ways…
I like to think I’m a safety concious guy and I could tell that Mad Mikes Rocket Project was fraught with danger even before he launched. I like to think that anybody could, really. Even Mad Mike himself. And if you know how dangerous it is to launch yourself into the air in a DIY rocket, but still goes ahead with it, you have got to be missing basic self preserving instincts. If, OTOH, you don’t understand that this is extremely dangerous, well, you just have got to be…ignorant of the facts of life. Which, come to think of it, he probably was as he considered the planet we live on to be flat.