Free Republic

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...