‘Flat-earther’ takes a look from above
Californian blasts off in home-made rocket, and returns with a thud, as he tries to prove conspiracy
‘The problem is, it brings out all the nuts, people questioning everything. It’s the downside of all this’
A SELF-TAUGHT rocket scientist blasted himself into the California sky using a steam-powered contraption he built in his garage as part of a project to prove the Earth is flat.
Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limousine driver, activated the parachute on his homemade rocket after propelling himself to 1,875ft in the air above the Mohave Desert on Saturday afternoon.
The rocket, which lifted off with no countdown shortly after 3pm local time, reached speeds of 350mph before it began its descent back to earth. Mr Hughes deployed a second parachute after he began falling too fast. He was visibly dazed as he was lifted from his seat and checked over by paramedics after a hard landing.
“This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways,” he told the Associated Press. “This thing will kill you in a heartbeat. Am I glad I did it? Yeah. I guess,” he said. “I’ll feel it in the morning. I won’t be able to get out of bed. At least I can go home and have dinner and see my cats tonight.”
The height Mr Hughes reached would not have been sufficient for him to ascertain whether the Earth is curved.
The “flat-earther”, who has spent around $20,000 (£14,000) pursuing his rocket dream since 2016, said he was “relieved” to have finally achieved his goal after several aborted attempts and ridicule from some sceptics.
“I’m tired of people saying I chickened out and didn’t build a rocket. I manned up and did it.” Mr Hughes converted a mobile home into a ramp for the rocket, and worked on the project in his garage. Last year, he was forced to postpone a take-off attempt from an abandoned runway at Amboy, a ghost town about 200 miles east of Los Angeles, after the motorhome broke down.
Mr Hughes, who plans to stand for governor of California, has the support of the flat-earth community, who helped fund the mission, and eventually wants to build a “Rockoon” – a rocket that is carried into the atmosphere by a gas-filled balloon – to take him high enough to photograph the planet from space.
“Do I believe the Earth is shaped like a Frisbee – or flat? I believe it is,” he said last year. “I cannot disprove it after my months of research. “Do I know for sure? No. That’s why I want to go up into space 62 miles up to settle this thing once and for all.”
Reflecting after his mission, Mr Hughes said: “My story is incredible. It’s got a bunch of storylines – the garagebuilt thing. I’m an older guy. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, plus the flat Earth. The problem is, it brings out all the nuts also, people questioning everything. It’s the downside of all this.”
It is hard to believe that anyone still thinks the Earth is flat. Man landed on the Moon 50 years ago and pictures from space have proven the planet’s spherical nature to the satisfaction of most. But not of “Mad” Mike Hughes, it appears. The 61-year-old American has built a rocket to propel himself into orbit to see for himself – though when he tried it at the weekend, he got only 1,875 feet into the air before crashing back into the Mojave Desert. He has been unkindly compared to the cartoon character Wile E Coyote, who strapped a rocket to his back to blast into space. Mr Hughes says he wants to run for governor of California. He sounds eminently qualified.