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Flat Earther's Homemade Rocket Launcher Breaks Down in His Driveway (desertsun.com)

The Desert Sun has an update on the progress of 61-year-old self-taught rocket scientist 'Mad' Mike Hughes: A man who believes Earth is flat, and was ready to launch himself from a rocket in California on Saturday afternoon to prove it, has canceled his plans. At least for now. Not having the required federal permits plus mechanical problems with his "motorhome/rocket launcher" forced self-taught rocket scientist "Mad" Mike Hughes to put his experiment on hold. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management "told me they would not allow me to do the event ... at least not at that location," Hughes said in a YouTube announcement, amid international attention over his plans to launch into the "atmosflat."

"It's been very disappointing," he said... "My feeling is that one of the top executives at the Bureau of Land Management called Needles, California, saying... 'What's going on? Who permitted this?'" Hughes said. Plus, as he and his team were preparing to leave Wednesday, the motorhome/rocket launcher broke down in his driveway, he said... His plan is to try again next week.

5 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. scientist by markdavis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >"forced self-taught rocket scientist "Mad" Mike "

    "scientist", really? Seems like a very odd word to use in a summary explaining he seriously [??] thinks the earth is flat?

    Perhaps self-taught mechanic, or self-taught assembler or something.

  2. Re:encouragement by sdinfoserv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you read the article, he states he does he does NOT believe in science. "There’s no difference between science and science fiction.”, he continues. So, in the name of "Non-Science", lets encourage this asshat to an expedient joining of the Darwin Awards club.

  3. Viewing curvature from 1500 feet by cahuenga · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So he builds a rocket expected to reach 1,500 feet.... When there is an 11,500 foot mountain 50 miles from Amboy with a trail right to the tippy top.and a 360 degree view of the horizon - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Call me crazy but I really don't think this has anything to do with 'flat earth', science or rockets. He got his picture in the paper. End of story.

  4. Re: He should really get a paramotor by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have you ever personally verified that the Earth is round? Few have.

    Anyone who has travelled to a different latitude and has seen the difference in the positions of the stars has seen first-hand that the Earth is a spheroid. That's not a "few" people.

    --
    If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  5. Re: He should really get a paramotor by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Have you ever personally verified that the Earth is round?

    Have any flat earthers personally verified that the Earth is flat ?

    Get a bunch of flat earthers from different places in the world in an on-line chat, and ask them to measure the angle of the sun. Repeat a few times at different hours. Now try to construct a flat Earth model that matches all the observations. Try the same with a standard round Earth.