_Mad Mike_ dies from his homemade rocket(360P)
- 4 years ago
Mad’ Mike Hughes, who wanted to prove the flat-Earth theory, dies in homemade-rocket disaster
Daredevil Mike Hughes dies after rocket crash
Video shows daredevil Mike Hughes and his self-made rocket falling to the ground and crashing in a desert near Barstow, Calif., shortly after launch on Feb. 22. (Justin Chapman/@justindchapman via Spectee/AP)
By
Alex Horton
Feb. 24, 2020 at 1:57 a.m. GMT+5:30
In December, buttressed by his conviction and advances in homemade rocketry, “Mad” Mike Hughes flipped on a camera and fantasized about the moment when he shows mankind that it lives on a verdant disk.
The plan: Float dozens of miles high in a balloon, then fly a rocket to the Karman line, the 62-mile-high barrier that separates the atmosphere and the cold vacuum of space, filming the entire way. “For three hours, the world stops,” Hughes said during a live stream, imagining the reaction.
Hughes, a self-styled daredevil, flat-Earth theorist and limousine-jumping stuntman, died Saturday when his crudely built contraption propelled him on a column of steam, spiraled through the air and cratered into the sagebrush outside Barstow, Calif. He was 64.
“Mad” Mike Hughes in March 2018. He died Feb. 22 after a rocket in which he launched himself crashed into the ground, a colleague and a witness said. (James Quigg/Daily Press/AP)
“Mad” Mike Hughes in March 2018. He died Feb. 22 after a rocket in which he launched himself crashed into the ground, a colleague and a witness said. (James Quigg/Daily Press/AP)
Justin Chapman, a freelance reporter, witnessed the launch while reporting a longer story on Hughes. The rocket’s green parachute tore away moments after takeoff, sending the crowd of 50 or so people into a panic, he said.
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“Everyone was just stunned and didn’t know what to do,” he told The Washington Post on Sunday. “They were silent for a long time.”
Hughes’s support team went to inspect the crash site about a half mile away, Chapman said, and returned with the harrowing news: Hughes was dead, the rocket had pancaked, and the other three parachutes never deployed.
“It was unsuccessful, and he passed away,” longtime collaborator and friend Waldo Stakes told the Associated Press.
Stakes declined to say what he thinks went wrong. Hughes had at least one successful launch, in which he was strapped to a rocket bearing the words “FLAT EARTH.”
“It’s a daredevil thing,” Stakes said in a short phone interview with The Post on Sunday, describing the danger and Hughes’s experience building seven rockets. “He was one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met.”
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The rockets he had ridden are not designed to reach space, but they were an apparent step toward his ultimate vehicle.
Daredevil Mike Hughes dies after rocket crash
Video shows daredevil Mike Hughes and his self-made rocket falling to the ground and crashing in a desert near Barstow, Calif., shortly after launch on Feb. 22. (Justin Chapman/@justindchapman via Spectee/AP)
By
Alex Horton
Feb. 24, 2020 at 1:57 a.m. GMT+5:30
In December, buttressed by his conviction and advances in homemade rocketry, “Mad” Mike Hughes flipped on a camera and fantasized about the moment when he shows mankind that it lives on a verdant disk.
The plan: Float dozens of miles high in a balloon, then fly a rocket to the Karman line, the 62-mile-high barrier that separates the atmosphere and the cold vacuum of space, filming the entire way. “For three hours, the world stops,” Hughes said during a live stream, imagining the reaction.
Hughes, a self-styled daredevil, flat-Earth theorist and limousine-jumping stuntman, died Saturday when his crudely built contraption propelled him on a column of steam, spiraled through the air and cratered into the sagebrush outside Barstow, Calif. He was 64.
“Mad” Mike Hughes in March 2018. He died Feb. 22 after a rocket in which he launched himself crashed into the ground, a colleague and a witness said. (James Quigg/Daily Press/AP)
“Mad” Mike Hughes in March 2018. He died Feb. 22 after a rocket in which he launched himself crashed into the ground, a colleague and a witness said. (James Quigg/Daily Press/AP)
Justin Chapman, a freelance reporter, witnessed the launch while reporting a longer story on Hughes. The rocket’s green parachute tore away moments after takeoff, sending the crowd of 50 or so people into a panic, he said.
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“Everyone was just stunned and didn’t know what to do,” he told The Washington Post on Sunday. “They were silent for a long time.”
Hughes’s support team went to inspect the crash site about a half mile away, Chapman said, and returned with the harrowing news: Hughes was dead, the rocket had pancaked, and the other three parachutes never deployed.
“It was unsuccessful, and he passed away,” longtime collaborator and friend Waldo Stakes told the Associated Press.
Stakes declined to say what he thinks went wrong. Hughes had at least one successful launch, in which he was strapped to a rocket bearing the words “FLAT EARTH.”
“It’s a daredevil thing,” Stakes said in a short phone interview with The Post on Sunday, describing the danger and Hughes’s experience building seven rockets. “He was one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met.”
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The rockets he had ridden are not designed to reach space, but they were an apparent step toward his ultimate vehicle.