On February 22, Daredevil “Mad Mike” Hughes perished when his steam-engined rocket crashed in the Barstow, California desert. His mission was to launch his vessel to a height of 35,000-feet in an attempt to confirm his theory that the earth is flat. Mad Mike attracted attention for his conspiracy theories and for documenting his bold pursuits. He raised thousands of dollars on GoFundMe to finance the construction of his rockets.
A now-viral video shared on Twitter by journalist Justin Chapman showed the daredevil's fatal mishap, but the details of what exactly went wrong were obscure until now. Mike's rep, Darren Shuster, told TMZ that, upon launching, Mike's parachute got snagged by a ladder next to the rock. The ladder was placed there because Mike had used it to get inside the rocket, as he was opposed to the initial plan of being lifted into it.
Mike's ground control crew radioed him to deploy one of the two backup parachutes installed on the rocket, but Mike never responded. It's suspected that Mike blacked out due to the rocket having blasted off at around 500 MPH. Since Mike was unable to heed his crew's instructions, he failed to deploy his backup parachute before reaching the launch's apex. Chapman's unfortunate footage captures the first parachute disconnecting shortly after the rocket began its ascent and then freefalling.
Daredevil "Mad Mike" Hughes Fatally Crashes Rocket Trying To Prove Earth Is Flat
Daredevil "Mad Mike" Hughes' Saturday mission in his crowdfunded, steam-engined rocket resulted in his death.
Daredevil “Mad Mike” Hughes had been trying to complete his rocket mission for years. In 2017, he raised $8,496 on GoFundMe to build a rocket that would allow him to prove his conspiracy theory that the earth is in fact flat. On Saturday (Feb. 22), he was launched in his largest vessel yet in the Barstow, California desert, hoping he would reach the the required height of 35,000-feet to confirm (or debunk) the earth's curvature. Tragically, malfunctions led to him falling out of the rocket to his death (as reported by TMZ).
A video shared on Twitter by journalist Justin Chapman shows the fatal mishap. It appears Hughes' parachute disconnected shortly after the rocket’s ascent, leaving him to freefall several hundred feet once the rocket made its downward trajectory. The rocket was steam-powered and had an ad for Hud, a hookup and dating app, emblazoned across its side. This design replaced the words "FLAT EARTH," which had been printed on his previous rockets.
In a 2018 interview with VICE, "Mad Mike" spoke about the motivation behind his rocket missions. "I don't care if it's Russia, the United States, or China. I'm going to go up there and I'm going to see it for myself," he said. "I'm going to have cameras with me," he said. "Most people are afraid to follow their dreams. People want the security, the insurance, the 401K, and all that stuff and it's all crap, OK. There is no such thing as security. What you've got is right now—you don't have tomorrow; you don't have next week. You have right now. Do the most with what you've got today. But, in the end, just be nice to people."
