June 26, 2001

10:06 AM

Good Old British Ingenuity ;-)Nasa Schmasha, Steve Bennet is out to claim the X-Prize ($10M) in his cement mixer, i mean um rocket....
posted by zeoslap (7 comments total)

A converted cement mixer?

Is this guy's name Harry Broderick by any chance?
posted by bondcliff at 10:09 AM on June 26, 2001

I once saw a rock band (okay, just two members of the band) playing, in a parade, while mounted inside of a rotating clear acrylic drum, of the same size and shape of a cement mixer, mounted on a cement truck where the steel drum had been... err, off topic?
posted by Dick Paris at 10:58 AM on June 26, 2001

Someone alert "Trash Heap Challenge"! (Where's Cathy Rogers when we need her?)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:12 AM on June 26, 2001

Does the X-prize do anything but attract dangerous mavericks like this guy? Any company that can build a reusable spacecraft for a 2 person journey to space will scoff at 10 million. That'll just about pay for the paintjob on a *safe* spacecraft. If privatization of space happens, it won't be due to this gold-plated trophy.
posted by skallas at 11:22 AM on June 26, 2001

I know Britain has a reputation for producing eccentrics, but this guy's not one of those, he's an out-and-out lunatic. Rather him than me, that's all I can say.
posted by Nick Jordan at 1:49 PM on June 26, 2001

That's a Darwin Award winner just waiting to happen.
posted by RylandDotNet at 4:59 PM on June 26, 2001

That thing looks more like a dildo than rockets usually do. Fitting.
posted by SpecialK at 7:05 PM on June 26, 2001