Self-taught rocket enthusiast and engineer “Mad” Mike Hughes, who believes and is identified as a flat-earther, lofted himself 1,875 feet up into the Mojave Desert sky in his self-designed steam-powered rocket and landed safely after being constantly compared to Wile E. Coyote.
Hughes lifted himself into the sky this Saturday and achieved a hard landing to prove that he is not one to “chicken out on building a rocket”. The launch of Hughes’s rocket has been postponed several times after originally being scheduled in November due to many mechanical problems and logistical issues encountered with the Bureau of Land Management.
However, according to the Associated Press report, Hughes’s rocket had the words “FLAT EARTH” written on it as it propelled vertically on 3 p.m. at 350 mph. This was meant to silence skeptics who claimed that Hughes would never get to his launch and most importantly to help his odyssey on proving that the Earth is flat and that NASA astronauts and icons are nothing but actors.
A man named "Mad Mike" Hughes launched himself in a self-made rocket 1,875 feet above the desert to try and prove his theory that the world is flat. pic.twitter.com/xSUmMQyJOt
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 25, 2018
Who is “Mad” Mike Hughes?
Hughes is a 61-year-old limo driver who modified a mobile home into a launching ramp in order to do this from a vertical angle. This has earned him comparisons to pop culture characters such as Wile E Coyote and Evel Knievel. After his 350 mph launch, Hughes claimed he felt nothing but an accomplishment to finally get done with his amateur self-made rocket launch.
He is also a firm believer in the fact that the Earth is flat. According to Hughes, NASA astronauts like Neil Amstrong and John Glenn are merely paid actors who performed in front of computer-generated images of a round globe.
Hughes has proven over the years to be a skillful man. In 2002, he set the Guinness World Record for a limousine jump and also has been building rockets for many years now.
Mike Hughes, a California man who is most known for his belief that the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee, finally blasted off into the sky in a steam-powered rocket he had built himself. https://t.co/wnqexoGT1I pic.twitter.com/zd8Ff9XtDU
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) March 25, 2018
Past attempts and postponed launches
This man has had many failed attempts at launching his self-crafted rockets, but he has stated that his ultimate goal is to launch himself 52 miles above ground by the end of this year in order to prove that the Earth is, in fact, flat. Without the help of any sophisticated equipment, media has given this man the title of Daredevil.
His first manned rocket was built back in 2014. Hughes wasn’t so successful, but after a few years of silence, he first scheduled this launch for November last year. Nonetheless, it was postponed due to the Bureau of Land Management regulations that restrained the launch on federal land.
The launch was postponed for another month, and then it was postponed again and then again until March. Hughes stated in November “It’s still happening. We’re just moving it three miles down the road”.
When Hughes decided to launch in February, he blamed the rocket’s ignition system for the failures. This is why he decided to finally go on his successful attempt on March.
Source: The Washington Post
