61 - year - old stuntman and inexpert Flat Earth theory researcher “ Mad ” Mike Hughes , who design to launch himself some 1,800 foot up at 500 miles per hr   in an untestedhomemade steam - powered rocketover the Mojave Desert ghost town of Amboy , California on Saturday in some sorting of gambit to prove the Earth is flavourless ( spoilers : it ’s not ) , will not be doing any of that that this weekend .

or else , Hughestold the Washington Post , Big Daddy Government has thrown a few obstacles in his way . Per the Post , the Bureau of Land Management has substantiate it had no record of give Hughes “ verbal permission ” to have the rocket salad launch on public lands as he had previously claimed , mean that the rocketeer has decided to hold up the launching date and move the location “ three miles down the route . ”

Mike Hughes is a limo machine driver who has construct his own steam - powered rocket . The 61 - year - old plans to lash himself into his observational rocket and boom off from a touch town in the Mojave Desert.https://t.co/BMPGKBN72Spic.twitter.com/BSxdtNNLYR

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— NBC10 Philadelphia ( @NBCPhiladelphia)November 20 , 2017

“ I do n’t see [ the launch ] happening until about Tuesday , aboveboard , ” Hughes told the Post . “ It takes three days to determine up … You know , it ’s not easy because it ’s not supposed to be easy . ”

“ Someone from our local federal agency reach out to him after visualise some of these newsworthiness article [ about the launching ] , because that was news program to them , ” BLM spokesperson Samantha Storms tell the report .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

It ’s not the first metre Hughes has plan to set up himself into the sky in a homemade rocket — a anterior effort in 2014earned himself injuriesfrom intense G - forces and a rough landing — but as the Post noted , he ’s only recently become a Flat Earth convert “ after sputter for months to raise funds . ” Hence the “ RESEARCH FLAT EARTH ” catchword on the side of his skyrocket , and Hughes ’ design to found himself progressively higher into the sky if Saturday ’s plan outcome was a non - deadly success .

In aKickstarter postfrom 2016 , Hughes wrote “ Mad Mike Hughes always want to be famous . So much that he decided ‘ What can I do to become and instant super genius dare devil ? ’ So he decided to break the existence record for the longest ramp parachuting in the world … He is the current world track record holder for a ramp rocket startle , but he want to shatter that record on February 12th 2016 ( Just 1 mean solar day before his sixtieth natal day ) . ”

While crowdfunding only raised him $ 310 of his $ 150,000 goal then , the Flat Earth connection later help him rear $ 8,000 of the eventual $ 20,000 it be to build the rocket .

William Duplessie

However , the BLM decision seems to have bought Hughes some time before the potentially deadly manned psychometric test of his DIY scalding steam missile — time which he apparently does not intend to use to reconsider whether this is a upright idea .

“ I do n’t consider in scientific discipline , ” Hughes previouslytold the Associated Press . “ I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air , about the certain sizing of rocket nozzle , and shove . But that ’s not scientific discipline , that ’s just a formula . There ’s no deviation between scientific discipline and skill fabrication . ”

[ Washington Post ]

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