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Daredevil and Flat Earth theorist Michael "Mad Mike" Hughes died Saturday in a rocket crash. Hughes, 64, wanted to prove the Flat Earth theory by taking photographs of the Earth from a homemade rocket. Saturday's rocket launch was to be featured on the Science Channel, which was chronicling Hughes' attempts to launch himself high enough in a homemade rocket to take pictures of the curvature — or lack thereof as far as Hughes was concerned — of the Earth. This particular launch was only supposed to take Hughes 5,000 feet in the air, according to Discovery. "Our thoughts and prayers go...

A daredevil has died after crashing in a homemade rocket he had launched himself while filming a program. "Mad" Mike Hughes, 64, died on Saturday near Barstow, California, after a rocket that he had built and crashed into the ground on private property at approximately 1:52 p.m. on Saturday near Highway 247, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. "In a cosmic quest to explore the final frontier on a shoe-string budget, Mike Hughes and Waldo Stakes have built a steam powered rocket that will launch "Mad Mike" 5,000 feet into the air," said an article on the Science...

A man died in what authorities described as a rocket crash in the desert in Barstow on Saturday afternoon. The deadly crash was reported just before 2 p.m. on a private property along Highway 247, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a written statement. "A man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert during a rocket launch event," the statement said. Medical help was already on-site, but the pilot could not be saved. Authorities did not identity the pilot pending positive identification by coroner's officials. Witnesses and news reports indicted the launch was an...

The rocketeer launched himself about 1,875 feet into the air on Saturday, March 24, aboard his Liberty One rocket before he landed in the Mojave Desert. Hughes sustained some bruises and had a minor back injury from the hard landing. His steam-powered rocket was also damaged but he came down in one piece. It was also finally mission accomplished after two failed attempts. "I'm tired of people saying I chickened out and didn't build a rocket," he said. I manned up and did it."

When last we heard of “Mad Mike” Hughes, the 61-year-old limo driver and stuntman who planned on launching a $20,000 steam-fueled rocket with “RESEARCH FLAT EARTH” painted on the side some 1,800 feet into the air at 500 miles per hour, the gosh darn government had intervened to tell him he couldn’t conduct any such launch on public lands. But Hughes has not been deterred, and in a number of posts on his Facebook page he claims to have a real launch planned for February 3rd. This one will be a vertical rather than horizontal launch, which Hughes believes will...

A California man’s quest to prove the Earth is flat will begin sometime next week when he plans to launch himself 1,800 feet in the air in a homemade scrap-metal rocket. “Mad” Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver who describes himself as a “self taught-rocket scientist,” has spent the past few years constructing a homemade rocket from scrap parts. His ultimate goal is to fly 10 miles above ground to prove the Earth is flat and disk-shaped. Hughes has invested $20,000 into constructing the rocket, which he hopes will travel at roughly 500 mph. Hughes’ initial plan was to launch...

A California man who planned to launch himself 1,800 feet high Saturday in a homemade scrap-metal rocket — in an effort to prove that Earth is flat — said he is postponing the experiment after he couldn't get permission from a federal agency to conduct it on public land. Instead, Mike Hughes said the launch will take place sometime next week on private property, albeit still in Amboy, Calif., an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert along historic Route 66. “It's still happening. We're just moving it three miles down the road,” Hughes told The Washington Post on Friday. “This...

A California man intends to launch himself 1,800 feet high on Saturday in a home-built rocket to prove that astronauts faked the shape of the Earth. Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver, said his stunt will be the first phase of the flat-Earth space program, sponsored by Research Flat Earth, a group that believes Earth is, well, flat. He claims to have built the steam-powered rocket out of scrap metal parts in his garage. The project cost around $20,000, including the purchase of a motor home off Craigslist that was converted into a ramp.

Seeking to prove that a conspiracy of astronauts fabricated the shape of the Earth, a California man intends to launch himself 1,800 feet high on Saturday in a rocket he built from scrap metal. Assuming the 500-mph, mile-long flight through the Mojave Desert does not kill him, Mike Hughes told the Associated Press, his journey into the atmosflat will mark the first phase of his ambitious flat-Earth space program. Hughes’s ultimate goal is a subsequent launch that puts him miles above the Earth, where the 61-year-old limousine driver hopes to photograph proof of the disc we all live on. “It’ll...

Support for the Flat Earth movement has been exploding in popularity, with millions believing NASA is trying to dupe us about the shape of our planet. Google Trends data reveals searches for “flat earth” in the past two years have tripled, with a 90 percent surge in interest in the cranky conspiracy theory. High-profile celebrity endorsements have helped grow a community of people who reject “globehead” thinking and insist that the world is in fact flat. Those coming out about their belief include NBA player Kyrie Irving, who said in a podcast that he believed the Earth is not the...

In the stew of false information and conspiracy theories that swirls online, perhaps no idea is as flummoxing as the belief in a flat Earth. Flat-Earthers believe that the Earth is a flat disc ringed by an ice wall. All those elegant models of a round Earth that perfectly explain seasons, eclipses, sunrises and sunsets? Lies and cover-ups, they say. Pictures of the round Earth from space? Government conspiracies. The fact that you can see ships disappearing hull-first over the curve of the horizon with your own eyes? Well, flat-Earthers claim to see something different. It's been a big publicity...

Mad Mike Hughes CANCELLATION of Rocket Launch Statement. Flat Earth Update 02/04/2018 | "Actually, it was the actuator" - Michael J Hughes. Mike explains why the rocket launch failed. Has Mike just run out of steam? "I'm a 61 year old man. I'm tired" Mike quoted as saying upon exiting