On Saturday, 64-year-old "Mad" Mike Hughes was killed when a rocket he was attached to crashed in the desert in San Bernardino County, California. The more outlandish and provocative the content, the more interest, and hence more views. Two armed but unopened parachutes were still attached to the rocket when it came down. Incredibly, the team was still dicking around with technical issues when I drove up. Ive heard that some make six figures promoting a flat earth. Mad Mike Hughes Cause of Death: As a part of a stunt, Mike was attached with a homemade rocket which was launched but quickly it was crashed. Ad Choices, DIY Rockets, Daredevils, and the Tragedy of Mad Mike Hughes. The plan was to start heating the boiler shortly after dawn Saturday. Question what your congressman is doing, your city council. The rocket flew for 22 seconds after the last of the steam dissipated, but Mike never responded to radio communications. Mad Mike attracted attention for his conspiracy theories and for documenting his bold pursuits. Ill feel it in the morning. Why the Search for Life in Space Starts With Ancient Earth. That launch seemed to go flawlessly, as the parachute remained intact and slowed his descent. Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. So the carnival headed back to Amboy last summer. It was getting him back alive. Rare Fugazi Live Footage Stitched Into New Movie to Screen One Night Only in Washington D.C. A$AP Rocky Wonders How to Break Violent Cycles in Hip-Hop on Tribute Single Same Problems', Adi Oasis Channels High Fashion and Euphoria in Video for Ovulation Anthem Multiply. [3] Although a public promoter of the flat Earth model, following his death his public relations representative said that Hughes had only used flat Earth as a PR stunt to acquire funding for his rockets. Period.) And in this sense, he was successful: though he says there were some background conversations within the community regarding the question of whether Hughes could crash, all in all Sargent considered the campaign the best $8,000 we ever spent, due to the enormous amount of media attention it garnered for the Flat Earth cause. I would think if you were gonna do a TV show like that youd look at the engineering of the thing and at least give him some engineering advice.. At least I enabled him. In 2012, I wrote a story about the car he was building in an effort to break the sound barrier. I remember speaking up only once. Famously known as Mad Mike Hughes, the daredevil rocket-maker died while attempting to blast himself into the sky on February 22, 2020, according to TMZ. The homebrew rocket maker had dreams of fame and fortune. Mounted nearly 15 degrees from vertical on a launch rail that resembled an industrial-grade erector set, the rocket looked like the kind of thing you might have doodled during an especially tedious junior-high earth science classa slender fuselage bracketed by a needle-shaped nose and four fins at the base. What people need to realize is this is going to be the most-watched event in the history of mankind. On February 22, Daredevil "Mad Mike" Hughes perished when his steam-engined rocket crashed in the Barstow, California desert. I love that ending, where he was able to be successful, Brusseau said. Editors picks I think he honestly meant it. He was 64. The duo Mike and Waldo Stakes was working on the self built steam powered rocket to reach at 5000 feet approx 1.5 km in the air while riding in it. Then, he planned to launch the rocket on the 10th of August 2019, which was postponed. What did he expect? I think were looking at 50-50, Waldo said blithely. With time their family will shares his funeral information publically. Dramatic video footage of the botched stunt posted on social media appears to indicate that there was a problem with his parachute. We all understood that the chances of success were minimal. Eventually, he successfully raised the $7,875 fund from the campaign. And yet, as I stood among the sagebrush outside Barstow, gazing at the progress of a tiny white speck against the blue sky, I found myself chanting commands to someone who I knew couldnt hear me. He planned to launch himself in a rocket in August 2019. Mad Mike died at the age of 64. We've received your submission. Despite my misgivings, I was intrigued. I met Mike through Waldo Stakes. To them, this was just a lark. A group of spectators gathered around him. More people will watch this than the supposed moon landing.. This California farm kingdom holds a key, Six people, including mother and baby, killed in Tulare County; drug cartel suspected, These are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles, New Bay Area maps show hidden flood risk from sea level rise and groundwater, Gina Lollobrigida, film star who conquered Italy, Hollywood and the world, dies at 95, Storm sets new L.A. rain records. I headed to Barstow first thing Saturday morning feeling a sense of dread. Released in August 2019, this 94-minute documentary, co-directed by Toby Brusseau and Michael Linn, starred Mike Hughes, Waldo Sykes, Patrick Marchese. But, he had gushed about his birthday publically. Waldo Stakes who was working on the same project as a colleague of Mad Mike also confirmed that It was Unsuccessful and he passed away However he further refused to made any statements of comments on this regard. Over the years, hed worked as a motorcycle racer, race car fabricator, race car mechanic, NASCAR crew chief, and limousine driver. This story has been shared 114,809 times. Grinning fiercely, Waldo told me, Im going to send this guy into space, and people are going to go, Two fucking hillbillies living in Apple Valley built a spaceship, promoted it themselves, hooked it to a balloon, and launched him into space.. (Apparently, theyd been stolen by local meth heads.). Everybody lingered near the launch pad in a surreal state of shock and confusion. The column detailed a 1999 attempt by Hughes to build a car from leftover pieces and use it to qualify for NASCARs Winston Cup Series. The calculations to launch a payload into space, whether a satellite or a human being, have been well understood ever since 1944, when a Nazi V-2 designed by Wernher von Braun first left Earths atmosphere. Mike Hughes was born in Barstow, California, in 1955. Hughes said afterward, Am I glad I did it? Please follow the instructions we emailed you in order to finish subscribing. He lived in California. Although Mike was a fine fabricator and an excellent mechanic, he knew nothing about rocketry, and he was constantly running up against his technical limitations. The rocket launched at a sharp angle to avoid falling back to Earth on public land. And what was the point? A freelance journalist named Justin Chapman and his wife witnessed this crash. The Science Channel show, Homemade Astronauts, documented three self-financed teams as they attempt to get a rocket into space on a shoestring budget. Daredevil and Amateur rocket-engineer, Mike Hughes died aged 64 on the 22nd of February 2020. Why would people promote such a lie? The reaction of the flat-earth community has been varied. Before her death, she got married to Franklin Delano Floyd, which made him put Michael in foster care. He announced at that meeting that he was negotiating a deal with a TV network to cover his launch attempts. This was partly out of a sense of self-preservation; at this point, the rocket was effectively a bomb. On February 3, 2018, Hughes live-streamed another attempted launch, but the rocket steam release malfunctioned and the launch was aborted. Waldo, Mike, and their small but intensely loyal and hard-working crew were constantly clambering over the rocket and the launch rigwelding, hammering, grinding, cutting. The tension was growing, and so, it seemed to me, was the possibility of a last-minute mistake. Chapmans unfortunate footage captures the first parachute disconnecting shortlyafter the rocket began its ascent and then freefalling. Originally from Oklahoma City, Hughes started attending car races with his father at 2 months old and began racing motorcycles at the age of 12, according to an author biography for his 2007 self-published book, What Does A Limo Driver Know About NASCAR.. In November 2017, Mike claimed to give verbal permission from the Bureau of Land Management, which was approved, whereas the Federal Aviation Administration kept is pending approval. It was always his dream to do this launch & Science Channel was there to chronicle his journey". Hughes spent his childhood in Oklahoma City. He was an American limo driver and daredevil who gained the limelight for flying in self-built rockets. The author interviewing Mike while the TV crew films, August 2019. 'Mad' Mike Hughes' fatal rocket crash caught on video By Daniel Cassady February 23, 2020 4:05pm Updated Video posted online shows the exact moment "Mad" Mike Hughes' homemade rocket came. Mikes ground control crew radioed him to deploy one of the two backup parachutes installed on the rocket, but Mike never responded. Michael Hughes (February 9, 1956 February 22, 2020), popularly known as "Mad" Mike Hughes, was an American limousine driver, professed flat-Earther, and daredevil known for flying in self-built steam rockets. You had to shout to be heard over the low-pitched thrum of the generator heating water in the boiler. A former stuntman, Hughes had done two rocket launches prior to his death, one in 2014 and one in 2018, from which he emerged without major incident. Still, other flat-earthers believe that Hughes never thought the earth is flat but merely used the flat-earth movement to gain fame and financial backing. Alex Wigglesworth is an environment reporter who covers wildfires for the Los Angeles Times. Nevertheless, Mike Hughess funeral hasnt been revealed yet. It is unknown to us exactly what he did to earn an income, but it was clearly earning something because he invested a lot into building his home made rockets trying to prove his false claims of flat earth. When the superheated water is released, it passes through a nozzle at the base of the fuselage and turns to steam, producing the thrust necessary to launch the rocket. He was quite the celebrity among that flat-earthers at that meeting. He set a Guinness world record in 2002 when he jumped 103 foot in a Lincoln Town Car stretch limo. He was convinced that shadowy international cabals were running the world. I passed by the display of his rocket several times, hoping to speak to him, but he was always busy talking to other people, so I never got the chance. In 1974, he turned pro, and in 1979, he became the top Ice Speedway motorcycle racer in the U.S., the biography says. In the 1980s, Hughes worked as a fabricator and body specialist on cars for NASCAR drivers Randy Lajoie and Rob Moroso, and as a crew chief on a Craftsman Truck team in Washington, before moving to Las Vegas in 1994, according to a Las Vegas Sun column. He said that my suggestion was tantamount to auto manufacturers being responsible for car accidents. Robbie Kneivel, who spent his life in the family business of defying death, passed away on Friday after a fight with pancreatic cancer By Laurenz Busch - January 13, 2023 Robbie Knievel, who. He reached a height of 1,875 feet. It took me two years to figure out how this works. In the end, he was too brave and tenacious for his own good. I stayed away from the crew as the water pressure rose. While that landing was hard, Hughes said that he received no serious injuries. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time But the more Waldo talked, the more credible the project sounded. Apart from this, he gained lots of attention due to his theory and he was trying to prove that Earth is flat and aimed to reach at 62 miles into the air in order to clear Karman Line. [10][21] A witness at the launch, freelance journalist Justin Chapman, said that the rocket appeared to rub against the launch apparatus and ladder, perhaps tearing the parachutes. Although a public promoter of the flat Earth model, following his death his public relations representative said that Hughes had only used flat Earth as a PR stunt to acquire funding for his rockets. In contrast with a sober NASA launch vehicle, it sported a jaunty purple, orange, and white paint job and signage from sponsors, including a chain of Mexican chicken restaurants, an online dating app (Dating isnt rocket science), and companies offering crane, welding, and window-tinting services. A lot of things hes done would have killed somebody else or put him in a wheelchair.. Insanethats what I was thinking. And luckily it didnt turn out that way for us that day.. Should the scientific community trust him? Its not clear how strongly he held the conviction, or if he really believed it at all. Were going to have to bury him, Waldo said. So instead of floating gently to the ground, he crash-landed after a wild 11-second flight. You can also sign up for our free print newsletter (US only). Mike was born in the Hughes family and possessed a white ethnical background. Then we waited anxiously for Mike to deploy the parachutes. I was fascinated by his plan to repurpose space-age-era NASA and military-surplus components to bring the land speed record back to the US from the UK. Hughes was a member of the Flat Earth community, a subculture consisting of people who (despite all scientific evidence pointing squarely to the contrary) believe that the Earth is not round, but flat. Waldo cajoled me into writing a brief, lighthearted story about the episode. There is nothing in the world I could have done to prevent Mike from riding a steam rocket to his death, but I didnt have to be there when it happened. I asked them if they had any idea how off-the-charts dangerous this was? For shame on you all. Its not clear if he was successful. "[5] A fundraising campaign to cover the costs of the delay raised around $100 of its $10,000 goal. [8], Hughes planned to again launch himself in a rocket on August 10, 2019,[17] but mechanical troubles postponed the launch. This was ideal for WoW, which needed some action to film. Chute. He authored the cartoon book, Whoops Airlines. According to CBC News, Hughes collapsed after the landing and it took him three days to recover. He shared a video on Twitter and said Mad Mike Hughes just launched himself in a self-made steam-powered rocket and crash landed. Waldo checked out the steam rocket Mike had built at a truck shop in Fontana. Not because I designed or built the rocket, and not because I belted him into the cockpit. Michael passed away of cause of death on month day 2008, at age 75 at death place, Florida. I also wondered if Hughes was serious about the earth being flat; assuming he was, I thought about the implications of his death when it came. [1][2] He died on February 22, 2020, while filming a stunt for an upcoming Science Channel television series. Famously known as "Mad" Mike Hughes, the daredevil rocket-maker died while attempting to blast himself into the sky on February 22, 2020, according to TMZ. Its easy to ridicule the Mike Hugheses of the world, have-nothings who gamble their lives on a lottery offering only a microscopic chance of success. The idea was to carry Mike roughly 20 miles aloft in a gargantuan helium balloon before igniting the rocketa Cold War-era launch system known as a rockoon. Freelance journalist Justin Chapman is writing a book about Hughes, and was at the final launch in the desert outside Barstow, Calif. "There were about 50 spectators there," Chapman said. Just a slender projectile hurtling silently to the ground. Your newsletter signup did not work out. Finally, Waldo and several of Mikes friends began walking toward the wreckage. Similarly, those who promote the flat-earth movement (primarily on the internet), particularly such stunts, bear some responsibility for Hughes death. Thank you for signing up to receive email newsletters from Answers in Genesis. As freelance journalist Justin Chapman told NPR, the goal of such expeditions was not so much to prove that the earth was flat, as it was to bring attention to the Flat Earth cause. (A representative for Hughes also confirmed this in a statement to BuzzFeed, saying he did not actually believe in the theory and that we used flat Earth as a PR stunt. Back at El Ranchito Rakete, there were arguments over Mikes redesign of the launch system. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Office said, rocket crash off highway 247 in Barstow, California, on Saturday afternoon. 2023 Cond Nast. With 90 gallons of water in the tank, the goal was to reach an altitude of one mile. "Storm Chasers" stars Matt Hughes has died at the age of 30 after committing suicide. In Vegas, Hughes became both limousine chauffeur and daredevil; he took to referring to himself as the worlds most famous limo driver.. Mike Hughes taking a break in August 2019 while prepping his rocket for a launch in the Mojave Desert. Videos of the launch show that his parachute opened and detached from the rocket almost instantly, dooming Hughes to a high-velocity impact on the desert floor shortly after that. "[13], The untested initial rocket was intended to reach a speed of 500mph (800km/h); further rocket trips, which were to be launched from a balloon 20 miles (32km) up,[14] were intended to reach above the atmosphere into outer space. Mad Mike Hughes just launched himself in a self-made steam-powered rocket and crash landed. The challenge, I suggested, wasnt shooting Mike into space. Waldo speculates that the violence of the shift knocked Mike unconscious. The phenomenon threatens local drinking water, and scientists think climate change may be the culprit. And when it comes down to it, he deserves kudos for that.. The mayor/owner of Amboy, along with two of the three full-time residents. I had no attachment to him or his rocket launches. He soon acquired an interest in motorcycle racing. And they planned to do it with a spacecraft built at El Ranchito Rakete. If hed succeeded, the flight would have been a scene in my story and a segment in the reality-TV show. Those dreams ended on the edge of the Mojave Desert. Science Channel gave this a platform, read one tweet. An O-ring failed. There have been other terrible injuries. Been revealed yet indicate that there was a problem with his parachute us only ) wasnt shooting Mike Space... To deploy the parachutes Mojave Desert more outlandish and provocative the content, the was. 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