Famous flat-earther 'Mad' Mike Hughes dies in homemade rocket crash

Police responded to the fatal crash positioned off highway 247 in Barstow Saturday afternoon. The sheriff's aviation unit is currently investigating the incident.

FEBRUARY 23, 2020 10:05

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base (photo credit: REUTERS) — A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base

(photo credit: REUTERS)

A well known flat-earther, "Mad" Mike Hughes, was killed during an attempt to launch his homemade rocket in the California desert Saturday.

Hughes was set to launch his steam-powered rocket 5,000 feet in the air, as part of the Science Channel series Homemade Astronauts. Eventually, Hughes hoped to springboard this project into developing a part-rocket-part-ballooon craft that could send him 62 miles into the air, where the Earth's atmosphere meets space at the Kármán line.

The series documents "three self-financed teams with sky-high dreams, in their cosmic quest to explore the final frontier on shoe-string budgets," according to the Discovery Channel.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mike Hughes' family and friends during this difficult time. It was always his dream to do this launch, and Science Channel was there to chronicle his journey," the Science Channel said in a statement. \

Police responded to the fatal crash positioned off highway 247 in Barstow Saturday afternoon. The sheriff's aviation unit is currently investigating the incident.

According to social media accounts and video, the rocket deployed its parachute shortly after take-off as opposed to on its descent - displacing the parachute from the craft as Hughes' rocket careered toward the Earth .

"A man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert during a rocket launch event," San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said, according to NBC News.

Hughes' dream of propelling himself into space surrounded his flat-earth efforts, attempting tirelessly to prove through first-hand accounts that the Earth is actually "shaped like a frisbee," opposed to the empirical and scientific evidence that demonstrates otherwise.

The 64-year-old previously attempted a launch where he successfully rocketed himself 1,875 feet into the air above the Mojave desert in 2018, also in a homemade rocket.