Remember Mike Hughes, the guy who was building a rocket as part of a plan to prove the Earth is flat? He finally got his first rocket in the series of rockets – just a test, not the final rocket – to fire and get him off the ground:
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.
The 61-year-old limo driver and daredevil-turned-rocket-maker soared about 1,875 feet above the Mojave Desert on Saturday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. Hughes’s white-and-green rocket, bearing the words “FLAT EARTH,” propelled vertically about 3 p.m. Pacific time and reached a speed of about 350 mph, Waldo Stakes, who has been helping Hughes, told the AP. Hughes deployed two parachutes while landing, the second one just moments before he plopped down not far from his launching point. [WaPo]
He was mildly injured, but says he’ll be continuing. While I don’t agree with his scientific views, I admire this 61-year old’s gumption. I honestly hope he achieves his goal of getting a rocket up 52 miles – and discovers the Earth really is a sphere. He can bring the news back as independent confirmation, in the great tradition of science.
