April 05, 2019
Mad Mike Hughes/via Facebook
A long-awaited rocket launch in the name of Flat Earth awareness finally happened in late March 2018. The rocket, and pilot Mad Mike Hughes, survived relatively unscathed. He said he's planning a launch from Antarctica next.
In recent days, some exciting news has emerged from the Flat Earthers’ world.
If you recognize the name Mad Mike Hughes, it’s likely because he strapped himself into a rocket last March and traveled three-tenths of a mile into the heavens in the name of Flat Earth awareness. (See for yourself!)
Well, nearly a year to the date after that momentous achievement, the limousine-driving daredevil and gubernatorial candidate has announced he’s building upon the lessons learned last year and pushing the limits even further.
This time, there is chatter within the community about his potential plans to do so from the cold continent of Antarctica, and will apparently share his plans during May’s “Flat Earth: Exit the Matrix Expo” in Las Vegas. (Tickets are $20, in case you’re thinking of heading out for the occasion.)
“A plan to prove the Earth flat or round will be presented to an International audience,” reads a promo for the two-day event. “The list of topics to be presented include Flat Earth and other controversial subjects. The full list of speakers is yet to be determined.”
There, Hughes will announce a “’rockoon’ launch to the edge of space” and “an Antarctic expedition with the goal of reaching the edge of the world … to prove once and for all that this Earth is flat,” according to the event's promotional declaration.
It seems that Hughes is upset regarding his appearance in "insensitive doofus" Logan Paul's movie about the topic. Per an associate, the Science Channel "is filming Mike's progress as he plans to go to space to prove Flat Earth (or debunk it)." Thus, the May announcement in Vegas.
Why that location, you may ask?
Per the Flat Earth Society, “Antarctica is a portion of ice surrounding the known Earth, and that in its end there is a huge wall of ice (with different sizes depending on the subtheory) which has yet to be fully explored.”
Hughes may not alone in seeing Antarctica holds the key to proving their assertion.
Another group either does or does not plan to sail to the “continent” through the Flat Earth International Conference. So, there’s that.
There is also this: Hughes has kind of grown tired of the movement's political infighting.
We caught up with him Thursday afternoon on the phone from California where he was "putting decals on the rocket right now!"
Before any sort of Antarctica excursion, he's planning for a May 9 launch either in New Mexico "or the middle of the ocean if the government tries to stop me."
Of the TV show, he said it will be based on, among other things, "the "crazy s*** I do and the history of rocketry." He hopes to reach the Kármán line, some 62.8 miles above Earth where space begins.
"That way, we'll see what shape this rock really is," he said. "More people will watch this than those who watched the fake moon landing. It will be an incredible, incredible event. People will see what I'm seeing for three hours up there and back and they'll be able to make up their own minds."
Regarding Antarctica, he said that a friend of his is working to put a deal together for that to happen, and it's a mission that will totally be discussed in Vegas, a show he put together because of infighting.
"I'm really tired of a bunch of the big names in the Flat Earth movement. Ego got involved when people started making money, and I head-butted with a lot of people," he said. "I'm the only guy capable of actually proving what shape this rock is, and that's by going up into space to do it. People weren't inviting me to big conferences after everything I've done for Flat Earth. Nobody has brought as much attention to it as I have."
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