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Thread: Flat Earther "Mad" Mike Hughes (64) died while trying to launch himself on a rocket to prove the Earth is flat

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    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Flat Earther "Mad" Mike Hughes (64) died while trying to launch himself on a rocket to prove the Earth is flat

    The launch is happening Saturday. He's done a much, much shorter flight in the past & injured himself pretty badly, so this might be the first time (besides some mis pers cases) where a death thread's started before the death

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.c2f96b1d4c4f




    Seeking to prove that a conspiracy of astronauts fabricated the shape of the Earth, a California man intends to launch himself 1,800 feet high on Saturday in a rocket he built from scrap metal.

    Assuming the 500-mph, mile-long flight through the Mojave Desert does not kill him, Mike Hughes told the Associated Press, his journey into the atmosflat will mark the first phase of his ambitious flat-Earth space program.

    Hughes?s ultimate goal is a subsequent launch that puts him miles above the Earth, where the 61-year-old limousine driver hopes to photograph proof of the disc we all live on.

    ?It?ll shut the door on this ball earth,? Hughes said in a fundraising interview with a flat-Earth group for Saturday?s flight. Theories discussed during the interview included NASA being controlled by round-Earth Freemasons and Elon Musk making fake rockets from blimps.

    Hughes promised the flat-Earth community that he would expose the conspiracy with his steam-powered rocket, which will launch from a heavily modified mobile home ? though he acknowledged that he still had much to learn about rocket science.


    ?This whole tech thing,? he said in the June interview. ?I?m really behind the eight ball.?


    That said, Hughes isn?t a totally unproven engineer. He set a Guinness World Record in 2002 for a limousine jump, according to Ars Technica, and has been building rockets for years, albeit with mixed results.

    ?Okay, Waldo. 3 . . . 2 . . . 1!? someone yells in a test fire video from 2012.

    There?s a brief hiss of boiling water, then . . . nothing. So Hughes walks up to the engine and pokes it with a stick, at which point a thick cloud of steam belches out toward the camera.

    He built his first manned rocket in 2014, the Associated Press reported, and managed to fly a quarter-mile over Winkelman, Ariz.

    As seen in a YouTube video, the flight ended with Hughes being dragged, moaning from the remains of the rocket. The injuries he suffered put him in a walker for two weeks, he said.


    And the 2014 flight was only a quarter of the distance of Saturday?s mile-long attempt.






    And it was based on round-Earth technology.

    Hughes only recently converted to flat-Eartherism, after struggling for months to raise funds for his follow-up flight over the Mojave.

    It was originally scheduled for early 2016 in a Kickstarter campaign ? ?From Garage to Outer Space!? ? that mentioned nothing about Illuminati astronauts, and was themed after a NASCAR event.

    ?We want to do this and basically thumb our noses at all these billionaires trying to do this,? Hughes said in the pitch video, standing in his Apple Valley, Calif., living room, which he had plastered with drawings of his rockets.

    ?They have not put a man in space yet,? Hughes said. ?There are 20 different space agencies here in America, and I?m the last person that?s put a man in a rocket and launched it.? Comparing himself to Evel Knievel, he promised to launch himself from a California racetrack that year as the first step in his steam-powered leap toward space.

    The Kickstarter raised $310 of its $150,000 goal.



    Hughes made other pitches, including a plan to fly over Texas in a ?SkyLimo.? But he complained to Ars Technica last year about the difficulty of funding his dreams on a chauffeur?s meager salary.


    A year later, he called into a flat-Earth community Web show to announce that he had become a recent convert.

    ?We were kind of looking for new sponsors for this. And I?m a believer in the flat Earth,? Hughes said. ?I researched it for several months.?

    The host sounded impressed. Hughes had actually flown in a rocket, he noted, whereas astronauts were merely paid actors performing in front of a CGI globe.

    ?John Glenn and Neil Armstrong are Freemasons,? Hughes agreed. ?Once you understand that, you understand the roots of the deception.?

    The host talked of ?Elon Musk?s fake reality,? and Hughes talked of ?anti-Christ, Illuminati stuff.? After half an hour of this, the host told his 300-some listeners to back Hughes?s exploration of space.

    While there is no one hypothesis for what the flat Earth is supposed to look like, many believers envision a flat disc ringed by sea ice, which naturally holds the oceans in.

    What?s beyond the sea ice, if anything, remains to be discovered.

    ?We need an individual who?s not compromised by the government,? the host told Hughes. ?And you could be that man.?


    A flat-Earth GoFundMe subsequently raised nearly $8,000 for Hughes.

    By November, the AP reported, his $20,000 rocket had a fancy coat of Rust-Oleum paint and ?RESEARCH FLAT EARTH? inscribed on the side.

    While his flat-Earth friends helped him finally get the thing built, the AP reported, Hughes will be making adjustments right up to Saturday?s launch.


    But he won?t be able to test the rocket before he climbs inside and attempts to steam himself at 500 mph across a mile of desert air. And even if it?s a success, he's promised his backers an even riskier launch within the next year, into the space above the disc. He told Ars Technica last year that the second phase of his mission might involve floating in a balloon up to 20,000 feet above the ground, then rocket-packing himself into outer space.

    ?It?s scary as hell,? Hughes told the AP. ?But none of us are getting out of this world alive.?

    This is true. And yet some hope to live to see its edges.

    His promotional fb

    https://m.facebook.com/madmikehughes/

  2. #2
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Godammit.

    Sorry about the title, when I was changing it, it somehow just posted - even though I was still in the post typing when it happened . I didn't even know it had posted until I hit "post" after I finished it & it told me it was a duplicate.

    Weird, because it was pretty long & the send button wasn't even on my screen at the time - I was fixing the title & pic link way up the top.

    Anyway, it's supposed to say "is going to launch himself"

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    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
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    Oh yeah, dude's going to die. Nothing he is doing makes sense to me. The "sea ice" aspect is laughable.

    Too bad they can't arrest him for being dumb, then keep him in jail to prevent him from accidently killing himself.

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    Darwin Award

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    Certified Grumple Bottoms Ron_NYC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Angiebla View Post
    Oh yeah, dude's going to die. Nothing he is doing makes sense to me. The "sea ice" aspect is laughable.

    Too bad they can't arrest him for being dumb, then keep him in jail to prevent him from accidently killing himself.
    Why tho?
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    Senior Member puke's Avatar
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    Gooble goble gooble goble one of us one of us. t(-_-)t

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    Senior Member Queena's Avatar
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    RIP Mike. You Sir, were or are just in case you're reading this... A fucking idiot!

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    Certified Grumple Bottoms Ron_NYC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Angiebla View Post
    Oh yeah, dude's going to die. Nothing he is doing makes sense to me. The "sea ice" aspect is laughable.

    Too bad they can't arrest him for being dumb, then keep him in jail to prevent him from accidently killing himself.
    OK, he could hurt someone else. That's not cool. If he hurts/kills himself, have at it.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Ron was the best part, hands down.

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    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
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    "This whole tech thing," he said in the June interview. "I'm really behind the eight ball."
    You don't say.
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    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
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    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



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    Senior Member Jumaki15's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boston Babe 73 View Post
    You don't say.
    One less dumbass flat earther is good for all humans. I hope the rest follow in his footsteps.

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    Senior Member songbirdsong's Avatar
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    I got the impression that the whole flat earth component was more about getting sponsors, not necessarily because he believed it. Either way, it worked. $310 vs $8000.

    But yeah he's still off his rocker.
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    Just as I suspected. A ring of elderly pedophiles.
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    Fucking piece of shit, fucking scum, internet ass holes. fucking ingrate no life having fat ass. you have no fucking clue at whats going on fuck tard shit for brains.

  12. #12
    Senior Member animosity's Avatar
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    Atmoflat. New band name?

    My brother is wondering if the atmoflat is donut shaped or ends on the ice wall.
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    He should have teamed up with B.o.B. Just saw he has $6,862 in hid gofundme.

  14. #14
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Awwwww. I'm actually a little disappointed

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...lat/894762001/


    Mad' Mike Hughes cancels rocket launch to prove Earth is flat
    SHERRY BARKAS | The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun
    6:09 a.m. GMT+11 Nov. 26, 2017
    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 (BLM) "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.


    In this Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017 photograph, the homemade, steam-powered rocket built by daredevil/limosuine drive Mad Mike Hughes is shown on the property the man leases in Apple Valley, Cal. Hughes plans to launch the rocket Saturday over the ghost town of Amboy, Ca., at a speed of roughly 500 miles-per-hour. (Mad Mike Hughes via AP) (Photo: Mad Mike Hughes/AP)


    Hughes is a 61-year-old limo driver who has spent the last few years building a steam-powered rocket out of salvage parts in his garage. His project has cost him $20,000, which includes Rust-Oleum paint to fancy it up and a motor home he bought on Craigslist that he converted into a ramp.

    Hughes was set to launch his rocket between 2 and 3 p.m.on Saturday.

    Read more: 'I don?t believe in science.' Man who thinks Earth is flat plans to launch self on a rocket


    Plans had been in the works for more than a year and Hughes said he was initially told by BLM "that it was up to the (Federal Aviation Administration)" to approve the launch. The FAA, Hughes said, told him "We can't honestly approve it, we just know that you are going to do it there."

    News of his plans began to spread Monday and gained worldwide attention, which Hughes believes is why BLM began to push for permits.

    "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.

    "We want everyone to please stay tuned," Hughes said, adding he has set up a YouTube page where he will post updates. His plan is to try again next week.



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    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
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    You don't say....
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
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    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



  16. #16
    Senior Member blighted star's Avatar
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    Oh no!! Now I'm definitely disappointed


    He timed this really badly though, he could've hitched a ride on Tiangong 1 & scored himself a South Pacific holiday if he didn't burn up on re-entry

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-space-station

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    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
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    So.... Does this mean the Earth is flat?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



  18. #18
    What do you care? Boston Babe 73's Avatar
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    Yeah, it was only a matter of time for this dumbass. I wasn't exactly shocked by the news. The Earth may not be flat, but he is now.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    That is too pretty to be shoved up an ass.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nic B View Post
    You can take those Fleets and shove them up your ass



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