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Rocket Man Blues: Flat-Earther's Self-Launch Plan Hits a Snag

© AP Photo / Waldo Stakes/HO courtesy of Mad Mike HughesIn this Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, photograph, daredevil/limousine driver Mad Mike Hughes is shown with with his steam=powered rocket constructed out of salvage parts on a five-acre property that he leases in Apple Valley, Cal.
In this Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, photograph, daredevil/limousine driver Mad Mike Hughes is shown with with his steam=powered rocket constructed out of salvage parts on a five-acre property that he leases in Apple Valley, Cal. - Sputnik International
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Unfazed by an official ban to launch himself in a homemade rocket over a California desert in a bid to prove that Earth is flat, Mike Hughes remains confident that he will eventually fly to the atmosflat as part of his ambitious flat-Earth project.

Hughes said he was postponing the flight, scheduled for Saturday, after he failed to get permission from the Bureau of Land Management to conduct it on public land.

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He added, however, that he planned to launch sometime next week on private property in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, The Washington Post reported.

The ultimate goal the 61-year-old limousine driver has set himself is to fly in a balloon miles above Earth to take photographs which he hopes will prove that the planet we live on is actually a disk.

“It’ll shut the door on this ball Earth,” Hughes said in a flight fundraising interview with members of the flat-Earth community during which he claimed that NASA is controlled by round-Earth Freemasons and that Elon Musk is building fake rockets from blimps.

He promised to expose this conspiracy with the help of his steam-powered rocket that he plans to launch from the back of a converted mobile home.

However, Mike Hughes won’t be able to prove his bizarre theory unless he actually flies at 500 mph above Mojave Desert in a homemade scrap-metal rocket he spent $20,000 to build in his spare time, the newspaper wrote.

He has promised his supporters that if everything goes well, he will float in a balloon miles above the ground before rocket-packing himself into space as part of the second phase of his “Earth is a disk” program.

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Not entirely a rookie in rocket technology, Hughes, who only recently converted to flat-Eartherism, built his first manned rocket in 2014, and managed to fly a quarter-mile over Arizona before suffering a crash, which put him in a walker for weeks.

The Flat Earth theory has been increasingly popular in recent years fueled by online message boards and high-profile endorsements from celebrities.

Founded in 1956, the Flat Earth Society now boasts over 500 members.

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