Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
They said he was too chicken to do it. They said he never even built the rocket. And the more reasonable among them echoed what one NASA astronaut said about the self-taught rocket man: “I hope he doesn’t blow something up.”
But “Mad” Mike Hughes showed them all on March 24 near Amboy, California when we climbed into the $20,000 rocket he had built in his garage, launched upward at speeds around 350 mph, reached 1,875 feet, pulled one parachute, then another, and then fell rapidly back to earth, landing with a thud that left him with an aching back and his rocket with a split nose.
How does Hughes feel?
“Relieved,” he told reporters after being checked out by paramedics. “I’m tired of people saying I chickened out and didn’t build a rocket. I’m tired of that stuff. I manned up and did it.”
The 61-year-old limo driver had originally planned the launch for November of last year, but it was delayed by mechanical problems and complications with the Bureau of Land Management. It’s probably best he waited for better conditions.
“This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways,” said Hughes, who kept an altimeter in his cockpit to measure altitude. “This thing will kill you in a heartbeat.”
Why would someone take the risk? For one, Hughes seems to be a man of ambition. He already has plans to build another rocket that would take him much higher – 68 miles up. He also wants to be governor of California: “This is no…
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