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[Background talk]
[music]

- A California man is getting ready
to launch himself into the air

in a home-made rocket to
prove that the Earth is flat.

- Look, any idiot can sit in their bedroom
uploading conspiracy theories to YouTube,

but it takes a special idiot to launch
himself into space for the cause.

- Shasta, Haley, Curtis.

- He's done it before. He shot himself like
160 miles into space, not really.

No he did. I think he did shoot
himself 1.6 miles into the air.

It might be something he said,
he might just be crazy.

- I wonder how this ends for this guy?
Probably, you know how it ends?

- "Fuck. It's round."
That's how this story ends.

- Smart enough to build a missile from
scratch, yet stupid enough to climb inside,

my kind of crazy. -You may not
learn whether the earth is round,

but I have a feeling you're about
to learn a lot about gravity.

[laughs]

- I am Michael Hughes,
better known as Mad

Mike Hughes for some
unknown reason, I guess.

I live in Apple Valley, California,
which is in Southern California.

It's a place called The High Desert.

I live with my four cats,

and live a pretty quiet
existence considering

what I do, which
is build rockets.

I'm a limousine driver,
and have been for about 21 years,

and a former NASCAR
crew chief, I'm a

daredevil, and self-taught
rocket scientist.

Me saying I'm a self-taught
rocket scientist is a misnomer

because I really don't believe in science.
I believe in formulas, some math.

Not these things where the whole
chalk board's full of some formula

that no one knows, except three people.
I just want the raw truth.

And I believe in the Flat Earth model.

I'm not going to take
anyone else's word for it,

or NASA, or especially
Elon Musk with SpaceX.

I'm going to build my own rocket right here

and I'm going to see it with my own
eyes what shape this world we live on.

And that's Mad Mike is in a nutshell.

I got started at 6:30 this morning. This
is the first time I've sat down all day.

My back is done. My right shoulder
and both my knees are hurting.

I've got other interests,
other than this rocket, believe me.

There are other things I want to be doing,

but to do something like this,
it takes everything

and it will take everything from you. This
is what a lot of people don't understand.

This is why a lot of guys get divorced
and it will tear a family up.

It will bankrupt you,
or do all that kind of nasty stuff.

We just ran across this.
Some guy did an artist's rendering of me.

My hair might look like
that first thing in the morning,

but after it's blow-dried,
I think it looks a little nicer than that.

My tongue's not that long,
where I'd be in porn,

but he did a real good
job with the rocket.

But he's got my four cats right here.

This guy says I'm a plant to make Flat
Earthers look stupid. Is that what it is?

This is endless. You can spend one whole
day going through the internet

with people making drawings of me
with rockets stuck up my ass and now,

we've got cats in my video.
It's unbelievable,

but he did a good job
with the rocket, though.

Let's see what Haley thinks about it. Hey,
Haley, someone just sent a picture of you.

Which one is you? See?
It looks like shit, doesn't it?

See that really pisses me off.
You make fun of me and my hair,

I don't give a shit, but
don't make fun of my

cats, ok? I draw the
line right there. Ok?

Most of the stuff I buy is remnants, or
scrap, or whatever from these metal places.

It's very rare I buy something new.

I'll have them cut this down

where I can even haul it
back to the rocket ranch.

Oh hey, Candice.
This is part of the platform for the rocket

because now it's on
its wing standing straight up.

Instead of being on the ground,
it's going to be on this.

And we already got the frame made.
Is this thing really on backwards?

- You got it on backwards,
we were telling you that.

[laughs]

- I don't like to wear hard hats.
I don't think it's good for my hair.

That's the big thing in my
life is my cats and my hair.

- Mike is a good indicator
of never giving up.

Regardless of how hard
it is, he keeps going.

It's like this little pelican that has the
frog, and the frog is choking the pelican.

The picture says, 'Never give up',

that's what he reminds me of. He's the
little frog inside the pelican's mouth.

[laughs]

- I brought my own tape today.
- It'll be $42.44.

- Being forced to be thrifty and frugal
is everything on this project, everything.

Basically, this is the perfect example

of how some of the parts have
transformed into my rocket.

This is some kind of an air filter.
No one really knows what it's off from.

There's numbers on it
and all kinds of crazy stuff.

I said, "Man, that's a
great shape for a rocket

nozzle." I bought one
and brought it home.

It's on this stand, so I don't use
the stand, of course. It's useless,

but it's kinda cool to keep.
So here is the filter part.

No one knows what it filters, ok?
But now, luckily, when I took this apart,

there is nothing welded inside.
You can see the

shape is perfect for a
bell rocket nozzle.

That's the rocket nozzle
on the rocket right now, $50.

It may be around since
the 1950s, who knows?

Is this something that
NASA would use or SpaceX?

I don't know, but for
my use, it's perfect.

This is one of the many examples of how

something that was scrap and used for
something else wound up on my rocket.

This is kind of funny.
I just noticed this, 'Gravity'.

It's on the sticker,
I don't believe in gravity. There it is.

I was never tempted to
get in the motorcycle

stunt business because
I knew people in it,

only three or four guys were making money.

I mean there was guys going
and jumping for $200, $300, or $500.

And you can get killed.
But, I thought, you know

I want to do something
crazy, and I thought,

"What can I do?" I sit
down, I watch TV. I

just turn the TV on and
the Teletubbies is on.

Remember that crazy show?
I fell asleep watching the Teletubbies.

I dreamed about jumping a limo

in the stomach of one of the Teletubbies.
When I woke up, I'm thinking,

"Wow! That's a hell of an idea.
Jump a limo, no one has done that."

[crowd cheering]

- Let me out. Let me out.

- Can you raise your hand?
Come on. Are you all right?

- There he is. Mad Mike Hughes!
[crowd cheering]

- I guess it was worth it.
It didn't put any money in my bank account,

I don't think,
but very few things ever has anyway.

The flat earth thing, this time,
has to go up and down

because the rocket is standing up now.

You're doing a vertical
large this time?

Yes, that's the only
way I can do it there.

- From the highway, it's a quarter mile
from the road and all this area's flat.

- Good deal. I tell some
of the media people this

launch is going to get more viewers
around the world than the Superbowl

is going to get and some of the guys go,

"Yeah, right." Some guys
go, "Wait a second.

No one in Finland
cares about the Superbowl."

This is what's wrong with the world today,
no one knows what's real.

I don't know. I just researched and I

try to research the research
and that's what I always do.

- Well, I know I like climbing trees but

if I came from a monkey then
why the hell are monkeys still here?

You know what I mean?

I think that [mumbles].
- It's okay right here?

- Yes.
- Okay. Cool.

Okay, so we'll watch another video
of some uninformed idiot

that's made one who's got
to much time on their hands,

who doesn't know me.
If they'd walked inside my living room,

they would shut them up
real quickly knowing,

seeing just half of
my accomplishments.

Go get a life, okay? How
am I bothering you?

Because I may believe in
something you don't believe in?

It's just nutty that people actually
do this. Don't mess with me!

Go mess with someone else.
Dude, you don't know my background. Okay?

Have I beat up people? Yes. Have I pushed
people through plate glass windows? Yes.

Have I rammed people's-their head
into the quarter panel of the suburban

and then kick their ribs in? Yes.
And heard their ribs snap, yes. Okay?

But I'm a nice guy.

There is not an employee of NASA,
of Virgin Galactic,

of Blue Horizon,

that's ever designed, built,
and launched himself in a rocket.

So, there you go.

They started all this
space crap in the late '40s

and all the way through
the 50s. They're priming people, okay?

They will do a fake
attack through holographic images

in the sky, which they
can do, and they'll

simulate attack from
UFOs to unite the world,

to fight these beings from another
planet or another solar system

so we need the one world government,
the one world religion,

and one world everything
and currency. That's

how they want to bring
some of that stuff in,

in my opinion.

I haven't had a steady girlfriend
in about, what? 11 years,

which is my choice also.
Do I want to live in Apple Valley?

Uh... no. It's not exactly
the Mecca of entertainment

but it's inexpensive to live
here and I've got a shop.

To have this down the hill where you're
close to everybody and everything else.

That is $1,500, $2,000, $2,200 a month.

There's some months,
I don't make that much money,

so now how do you eat?

And even worse, you can't buy cat food.

That's Jojo. That's my first cat.
Had her for 11 and a half years.

I grieved about this cat more
than the death of both my parents.

This is something I can't read.
It's about cats.

It's about animals and
where they wind up.

They cross the rainbow bridge.

This was her leash.

She was an old soul.
People loved this cat.

In fact, some people loved
this cat more than their own cats.

That happened several times.
She was just a wonderful thing.

One of the few things in
my life I've ever loved.

This is her paw print.
This is a part of her fur.

My goal when I go to space,
is I'm going to take this with me.

Okay. Let's see here.

Here we go. There's one of them.

What's up, Waldo?

I think I want to do a round table
at 9:00 in the morning. Can you do that?

- Tomorrow?
- For the space thing?

- Yeah we can do that.
- What do you think about the colors?

- I'll take a look at it as soon as I fix
this wire.

You've done a lot of work since I've
been gone. You've been a busy boy.

My name is Waldo Stakes.

I've been building flight rockets
since I was 10 years old.

I got interested in rocket-powered
vehicles when I was about 19, 20.

I'm a self-taught rocketeer, everything
I learned, I learned from books

and from experimentation pretty much.

I'm currently retired and so
I have more time for this kind of stuff.

If you come to my house,
you'll see rocket engines everywhere.

I've been collecting them for 40 years.
All kinds of rockets

from maybe 1,000 pounds
of thrust to 60,000 pounds of thrust.

I help people because I like to see
people succeed and most of them

have this dream and nobody helps them out.

This guy, this Mike here,
I don't consider him a friend.

He's like a bad little brother,
that's what he's like, but we get along.

We work together. We help each other out.

I read about him, something
or other, and I figured

it might be a way to make a few bucks. He
was going to build a rocket, steam rocket,

jump over the Snake River Canyon.
So I called him

up, he's like, "Ya, ya. I'm
building this rocket."

And blah, blah, blah, and then he goes,
"I heard of you." And stuff like that.

I said, "How's the rocket coming along?"
I expected him to say,

"I'm going to get going
on it as soon as I get funded."

Which means, you'll never see that rocket,
but he didn't say that.

He goes, "Yes. It's coming along really
good. "He goes, "Do you want to see it?"

I said, "Ya, I want to see
it." I took a look at it

and he said, "What are you thinking?"
I said, "It sucks. It's going to kill you."

I said, "The balance is off.

The structure's okay but in my opinion,
if you're asking me,

it's going to kill you."

He goes, "Would you show me
how to have it not kill me?"

I said, "Ya, I will. I will."

- Hey, Waldo.
- Anytime, babe. Give me a countdown.

- Three, two, one.
- No. Got to go farther.

A rocket at 400 degrees
will become superheated water.

When it reaches the atmosphere,

when the plug is pulled and the water goes
shooting out the bottom, it becomes steam

and the steam expands 400
times its size and it gives

thrust to the rocket and
pushes the rocket up.

That's how it works.

I keep this with me all the time.
This is ideas and concepts.

Let me see if I can find Mad Mike here.

Wait, I think it's here. It's right here.
See it started with napkin drawings.

This is the first rocket. I said,
"You're going to be tucked down inside.

You need to be tucked down so you can
make the fins anything you want,

shaped any way you want. You can shape
it like a penis. You can paint it tan."

I said, "You could go to Viagra, or Cialis
or one of these companies,

Pfizer, and have it sponsored from them."

Did he tell you the story of the
launch that he actually did?

Mike goes, "I want to make
sure I beat Evil Knievel's record."

So what he did is when he put the
ramp on that shipping container,

he took a section out of it
and made the ramp 52 degrees.

Now when you're 45 to 50 degrees or so,
you're just in a ballistic arc.

You're at the same
velocity when you reached

here that you're
hitting the ground at.

That's basic physics. I said
"You can't have that." But he didn't care.

Daredevils have a different mindset.
And I can't explain it to you.

I can just tell you I've
met dozens of them.

All these guys they got the...
this is it:

If you can give them 50/50 that they've
got a chance of surviving, if they go,

"What do you think my chances are?
Are they 50/50?"

"Yes, you've got 50."
"Okay, let's do it."

Where a normal person would go,
"That's crazy. I want 70/30. I want 90/10.

I actually want 100%."
See, once you get to 100%,

it's not a daredevil stunt
but in their hearts,

they have a different way
of looking at stuff,

see? So here's what
happened with the rocket.

Ok, we had rockets on both of those chutes,
to pull the chutes out.

He goes, 'I don't trust them damn things."

What ended up happening was he
disconnected the rocket from one of them.

Just before he's ready to get
into the thing, he hears a noise,

and they're looking around
and the rocket has sprung a pin leak.

The pin leak means that's going to
crack the weld and it's going to go BOOM.

It's going to blow up and kill you.
You know

what Mike does? "Everybody
out of the pit!"

He puts his helmet on,
he climbs up the thing, he gets in there

and he wants to beat the explosion.
This is true!

See a 5-point harness,
it takes 10 minutes to put a guy into it."

You got to put him in there,
keep scooting him back. There's a pattern.

He goes click, "Get away! Get away!"

Everybody gets out of there, right?
Boom. He hits it.

Here's what happened with the rocket.
When the rocket come off the ramp,

it didn't have enough velocity
to rocket off the ramp.

Instead, it hooked up off
the ramp and it did this.

Then it went into horizontal flight.
When it went into horizontal flight,

it wasn't fighting its weight in the climb
so it picks up another G of acceleration.

So now, he's doing 350,
370, 400 miles an hour,

and then he comes to. He said he
wasn't out, but he was fucking out.

Just so happens that when he came to,
he reached for it on the right

and pulled the one that had the rocket,
the chute went, BOOM!

When it comes out like
this and you're doing 400

miles an hour and it's
designed for 100 or less,

it just starts shredding it.
So that's why the chute looked like shit.

It was a perfect chute. I packed it and
it was perfect. It was riddled with holes

but there was just enough there.
It slowed him

down enough and we figured
he hit the ground

at 60 miles an hour.

When he hit the ground, I never looked, but
he said his balls were black for a month.

I had to get him a walker.
He could not walk.

He doesn't tell you all
that because he doesn't

want to tell you the
bad side of that.

Essentially, he was in a
walker for two months.

- Back up!
- Mike's dad neglected him.

He never got any attention as a kid.
He's been driving the limousine so long,

he wants to be in the back.

- That gate's such a hassle.

I was tired of it five years ago.

I'd rather have an
eight-foot fence all way

around this place, you
couldn't even see through.

I'm going to go check my mail.

Fuck, it's like a maximum security.

They call my mailbox
'the rock' around here.

Alcatraz hasn't got nothing on my mailbox.

No mail today.

If I still had my limo today, that's what
I'd be driving it right now.

I loved the car. It's just different,
people look at it. It's a fun car.

It looks like a cross between
a Batmobile and a gangster car.

And I miss it, I think about it every day.
I started making my own license plates,

which is nothing new.
A lot of people have done it.

The California highway patrolman walks up,
"What's with that license plate?"

"It's my license plate."
"Where's the real one?"

"It is a real one. I made it.
It's my private

property. I don't
have to register it."

They called up the towing
company and that's

how I got two cars
down in impoundment.

I'm just wanting to check on the
status of my '89 Lincoln

town car limousine that
was taken from me by

force. Is it still
there on the property?

- Just one moment, okay?
- Okay.

- Hi, can I help you?
- Hey, how are you? It's Michael Hughes.

Just checking on the
status of my '89 Lincoln

limousine to see if
it's still there.

- Your Lincoln limousine was taken to
a junkyard and destroyed over a year ago

when it became our legal property.

- Okay - It hasn't been here
in a very, very long time.

- You are aware that I am the equity
owner of that and you actually-

- No, you're not. No, you're not. We liened
the vehicle, it became our legal property

and we disposed of it legally.

- What we're going
to do we're going to

citizen's arrest within
the next two weeks.

- Good luck with that. Go fuck yourself.

- We're going to ask for
the fucking death penalty.

We're going to go for the
fucking death penalty.

I want people to fucking,

just lose their life over this.

I wish I could have more animals.

I've had two rabbits since I lived here,

they both passed away. Hoppy and Jazzy,
they're both buried on the property.

The thing with animals,
there's no ulterior motives with them.

They only ask for a very
few things and that's it.

Where a person or another
man or a woman or a girlfriend,

it's a lot more complicated.
A lot more complicated.

I wish my parents would have live longer.
I wish my dad could've seen this,

what I've done, what I've accomplished.

He'd probably be very proud.
I would like to think he would be.

He'd probably be very surprised.

I wish I could have stayed
closer with my sons.

Maybe this is the best time of my life,
this year, right now.

Maybe I'm living the best time of my life.

A lot of the times we live the
best time of our lives, we don't know it.

And for most people, that
time's in high school.

Have the most fun, the most friends

and you don't realize it.

Within a few years, you're in some kind of
corporate job or some kind of profession,

I guess, seeking that security,
wanting the house,

and it's all downhill from then

because then your dreams
are sucked out of you.

[music]

- Hey, man. How have you been?
- Boy, busy as ever.

- You've built these rockets, you've talked
to the media, people have called you insane

and crazy or a fraud
and that it'll never happen.

- I was never trying to prove
the flat E arth with this rocket.

This is just a publicity
stunt to get publicity

to raise some money
to get me into space.

We have a valid plan to get me 62 miles up,

but you would see that
Felix Baumgartner went

up 130,000 feet, that is
not the edge of space.

They said it was, it's not even close.
It's another 40 miles away.

I'm planning on going up there.
We built a model of the rocket

and there's a valid, four-page
plan that explains this.

Guys, there's something
wrong with this model.

- What's wrong with it?
- It's round. It should be flat.

- That's because we have
a different opinion on that.

- The plan to get me up
to the space 62 miles up is,

of course, Waldo's plan because
that's above my pay scale,

but I guess I'm the
guy who is going to ride that thing up.

I'm looking forward to it.
I wish we could do it in the next 30 days,

but I think we're probably at least
10 to 12 months away from doing it.

The people we've got here
today is some people

that will be part
of the space launch,

I guess is what we're going to call it.

My buddy, Pat's here from
Carson City who worked incredibly

without pay at the launch site
in Amboy for at least four days.

And I'll never forget it.
I will never forget it, Pat, okay?

So he's with me from now on.
Of course, Danny, I met through Waldo

at the museum in Boron and he's
been nothing but a gentleman to me.

And I met this other gentleman
this morning, and Steve.

Who knows what this world is shaped like,

but I think the only way to do it is one
man go up with a camera or several cameras

that you can talk to all the way up
and see what's up there.

- These are oxygen bottles,
breathing bottles

because he's going to be
up there two to five hours

depending on the weather for
him to climb the altitude.

Two to five hours,
he's going to go up to 24, 26 miles.

Then, when the balloon
starts moving sideways,

it can't lift him
any higher anymore,

this essentially will trigger and
release him. The rocket will fire.

As you can see here, and I'll use
my hands here, the thrust lines

will pull this straight up.
He'll probably be doing,

I don't know, maybe 18,
20 miles an hour a second

and he'll burn out somewhere
around 1,800 miles an hour.

So he goes from 24 miles to
62 miles, but just before

he gets there, there's a
sensor in this thing.

Just when it's just about out of fuel,
it disconnects Mike, boom.

Disconnects Mike like this.
It boogies away from him.

It'll reenter the atmosphere automatically
and have its own parachute.

It'll lower itself to the ground.
That's gone. This is helium.

This is a cylinder of helium. The idea is
he'll be flying upwards like Superman,

without a spacecraft.
He'll be doing the speed of a Blackbird,

but he won't know it because there's no air
there to ruffle his clothes or anything.

All he knows is he's just climbing up.
He'll hit apogee.

This is where this
thing really comes in.

Then he'll start to fall.

As he falls, the air will
rocket around his suit

and go into this cone inside and
outside and it'll act like a parachute.

He will basically come
all the way down to

10,000 feet where he'll
deploy his parachute

and he should just be able to
stand up and go, "Ta-da." That's the plan.

It's as simple as I can
think about it and make it happen now.

Will this get him to space?
Absolutely, this will work.

What do you think? You've seen all
this stuff. What do you think?

- It's not pure O2 so there's no chance
of any fire or any issue like that,

which you have with pure O2 and
actually Buna o-rings in it too

but with Viton and everything.
- So you're saying

what the O-rings are made of
can contaminate the oxygen supply?

- No. They can start a fire.
- If you had the pure O2, yes,

just a Buna o-ring
can ignite and burn.

- Your face could start a fire.
- Yes.

- That's the truth.
- Oil on your body.

- Holy moly.
- Fellows, before we can start this project

and get it going, we'll have
to finish that one outside.

- All right. Beautiful.
- Let's go do it.

- Yes, let's do it.
- Thank you.

- Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it.

- I wanted more water
because altitude is your

friend. It gives you another
couple of seconds.

[phone rings]
- Hello, it's Michael.

- Hello this is Nationwide Financing.
- Oh! Nationwide Financing!

Okay, great. I'm really
looking for some funding,

but what I'm looking for
is about $2 million to

put me into space to
prove the earth is flat.

Can you help me with that?

- No, sir. Actually,
I'm not offering any funding today.

Are you at the time making
any daily or weekly

payments for the
merchant cash advance?

- I'm not a merchant because
that's an admiralty term. No,

I don't have any kind of
credit cards or anything like that.

I'm looking for $2 million if you'd help,
or maybe a rich girlfriend.

[laughs].

- It's Monday before the proposed
and planned launch date.

We're just loading things up. The rocket
is already loaded on a flatbed trailer,

which is about two or
three blocks from here

and he'll show up about
9:30 this morning.

I just wish we were already there set up.

That'd be nice and just
do media stuff all week.

It's great. It's getting ready to happen

but you know I
just know how much

work's got to happen in the
next four or five days.

It's nice to be rested up before you do
all this stuff instead of already worn out.

I don't know what that is.

I just wish all the stuff
was together. Hope

we don't run into any
kind of problems.

I'm hoping the motorhome's fine.
The rocket launcher,

hopefully, no one's broke into it stolen
stuff. I don't even know that yet.

See?

Boy that's a lot to tie down, man. A lot.

When I started out to do this,
I just did it cause I wanted to do it.

That's a lot of things happen.
You just want to do it

and then pretty soon you get so much time
and money invested into something, you go,

"Wait a second man, I need to
recover something on the this."

Then, you start trying to monetize it
and that gets evil in itself.

You think, "How can I make money off this?"
When initially you just wanted to do it.

I blame myself a little bit
on that. Or maybe a lot.

Okay.

- Hello?
- Hey, how are you?

- How are you guys?
- Fine. We're ready to get on the road.

- It is this weekend, isn't
it, the big weekend?

- Yes, that's the
plan of Saturday.

We've asked people not to come
there but it hasn't done any good.

- Well, it's big news.
- They want to witness it.

- We have some questions
if you're up for it.

- All right, so tell us about what
you're doing. Why are you doing this?

- You know the main reason
to do this is to inspire

people to do great
things for their lives,

that you can actually do something
with your bare hands in your garage

and with your own mind and affect
people's lives across the world.

I don't want to say around the
globe because I'm a Flat Earther.

[laughs]

- I don't know if it is or not,
just I cannot dismiss it.

- So, what is the most compelling
piece of evidence that

proves the Flat Earth theory to you?
What was the thing that was like, okay,

now I think something's up?

- So, we gotta think about
this, if you're going around

the globe, the plane's got
to dip every 5 minutes.

They're telling you that it's following the
atmosphere, it's following the

globe and this and that so
it keeps it the same height.

I don't buy it. Think about this,
if there's a big vacuum in space,

it should have sucked the
atmosphere off this planet anyway.

There is a lot of things.
- Why should the general public trust you

if they can't trust NASA or the government?
- NASA receives over $50 million a day.

Now, who's going to turn
that water faucet off?

People are born to really ridicule
anybody that thinks outside the box.

- How high will you be going?

- We're thinking this should
reach three-eighths of a mile.

- You are going to be
doing a launch that will

send you higher up into space.
Is that correct?

- We're just raising publicity, raising
awareness because to get me into space,

the edge of space, which is 62.8 miles,
it's called the Kármán line,

it would take about $2 million to do this.

- What if you get there
and you see the curvature of the earth?

- It's round. Why would I lie?

I have no agenda.
- Okay.

- Have no agenda? All right.
- I just want to know the raw truth

about everything.
- Back to your plans for the weekend,

Are you nervous or are you calm?
- I'm tired already.

I just wish I had the
energy I had 30 years

ago. That's what I wish.
I miss being young.

I miss being young because
I was unstoppable 30 years ago.

- You're unstoppable now
by the sounds of it, Mike.

- Maybe.

- Good luck with everything.
Thank you so much.

- Bye.
- Bye-bye.

Okay.

- My name is Patrick Marquese,
CEO of Markzware software.

I came across Mike back in November
during his first rocket launch attempt

and it didn't work out so well. He needed
some help and I decided to come out

here and help him during this attempt.

- What about the taillights?
- Well, that's why I asked yesterday.

- I got them. I got it.
What do I do plug that in there?

- Yes. Oh, I've still got

to ground that. God damn.

The jack stand pinched it.
- Did you get hurt?

- Yes, the jack stand
pinched my fucking hand.

- Fuck. I'll get a better one.
- That's okay.

- That isn't the best one in the world

- Here's your...
- It's doing the same thing.

- I don't even understand that.

[music]

- This is the road, the back way to
Amboy from my home in Apple Valley.

There's less traffic and the
speed limit is not as fast so

that's the way to go.

Instead of getting on
I-40 and going through

Barstow and all that
kind of stuff.

These people behind those are going to
hate us. - That's okay, they can hate us.

We're going to get there safely.

- You guys don't break
lights either cause I didn't

have time to look up the
ground to the trailer.

- I've never ever been involved
in something like this before ever.

This is this a complete adventure.
- This is unchartered territory, right?

- Anybody can go to a bar
or a restaurant at any time

but doing this? Gee whiz.

- It's been three months ago now since
we made this journey with the rocket.

The first time we were trying to jump
right around Thanksgiving or whatever,

but it just didn't work out it.

You know, these things are not easy to do.

Just trying to get it turned here guys.

Wait a second.

- For me, it's about the man
versus machine thing.

That's what it is. It's
not about flat Earth.

- If when they got up there into space
and it was flat would they tell us?

I'm thinking no, they wouldn't. - I guess
understanding that the Earth is flat

gets people to know or realize
that there's a creator.

- Yes.
- Like a god, or in my case, God.

- That brought me back to believing
in a creator because I was an atheist.

I just figured out everything was a lie.
Everything was a lie.

Bible, God, this. The only thing that got
me even believing in the Bible initially

was the mark of the beast.

That's the only thing that
grabbed my attention.

All these parables and
stories, I'm going, "I don't know."

That mark of the beast
thing that made sense

to me because once you
see these scanners

at the stores and whatever...

Maybe we all have the mark of the beast
already with a social security number.

Who the hell knows? - Well, the thing
about the social security number

is that it's three sets of three.

- That's it? No.
- Yes.

-One, two, three, one,
three, it's four.

-It's nine digits

- Is it?
- Yes. It's nine digits and it's just a...

- One, t-

So three, three, three.
If you have three, three, three.

- Well, mine is for 446...
- Well, no, no, don't say it.

But no, it's nine digits.

Several places in the Bible
talks about the Earth is flat.

Does not move and everything revolves
around it. It's the center of the universe.

- Now there's a place where I guess
Lucifer had taken Jesus up to what the,

where did He take him?
Had the tallest mountain on the planet

and he saw all four corners,
which is impossible on a globe.

- There's a lot of places.
Now do I think

at one time that it was possible that
big bang thing could have happened?

And then all these
magnetic particles

stuck together and

formed these different
planets and whatever.

I thought, well fuck,
that could have happened, you know?

But then again, you're thinking
that everything started from nothing.

Everything was just a black hole.
Nothing existed all sudden this explosion.

And that was my hole in that thing all
along. What caused the explosion?

But really, you look at that sun right now
man, does that look 93 million miles away?

Doesn't to me.

Now you've got to make
a wide sweeping turn here man.

- Still a little bumpy.
- Yes.

- I think I'm coming up on it.
- That's it. Is that right?

Think it's what it is?
- Yes, that's it yes.

- Yep, it looks like they did
some work right here.

- Right here.
- Holy shit, guys.

- That was something, wasn't it?
I mean, seriously.

- Okay let's start
disconnecting this thing.

Did we bring the jack stand
or did I leave it there for Waldo?

We want to put the rocket I guess
just right here where it's flat

and unload all that
stuff right here on this side.

Okay, let's go back down
to Amboy get the RV.

On launch day there will probably be a
bunch of people around here.

I just don't want anybody
down by the launch site.

It's too distracting. Then you get people
doing things nefariously.

So how's Manny doing?
- He lost his mom.

- Oh, shit.

I know someone else who lost their
mom this last week who does my eyebrows.

Well, in the 1950s
only about 1 out of 10

people died from it,
now it's 1 out of 3.

So you go figure. - Yes, well
there's so many different types now.

- Yes, do you think it's chemical
related or vaccine related?

- Hey we're here.

- Everything's still here man even bottled
water was still left there so that's good.

- I think that my hammer at your house.

- We want to remove this
part that's hanging

down because we aren't
going to use it,

it's gonna go to the scrap yard.
Just need a small uh,

small little something to beat with.

- Beat with? Well, alright,
beat it with this.

- Okay, that'll work.
If we start pushing

it down we need to
have someone kind of,

I don't want to smash out the windshield,
you know what I mean?

- What are we doing now?
- We're going to remove this thing.

Is that what we're doing?

Fuck yeah, we're going to
leave it right here.

- Okay.
- Yes. Let's see if we can manhandle this.

- Yes, all right.

- Can you lift up on the end a little bit?
I don't know, see if that will-

I need a hammer.
- Okay. All right.

- Wait a second.
- What?

- Let me try this.

- Yes, there you go.

Uh oh, watch out Mike, just easy does it,
don't hurt yourself.

- Okay, it's not working.
- Well, we need a hammer.

- That ain't working. Let's figure
out another way to do this, okay?

- You hit your face?
- Yes, fucking busted my nose open.

Okay. This is - we're
going to get a

fucking hammer, like
we're gonna need.

- All right.

- Well it didn't hit the window.
[laughs]

- That's so heavy, Mike.

It's going to have to
yank it off with the-

-Yes, we're just
move it forward here.

Fuck. That's what you wanted Mike?

- Yes, well I wanted to do it with that.

Motherfucker.

- He needs my jump. Hold on Mike.
Let me give you a jump.

Let me give you a jump.
- I don't need a jump.

- All right.
- Okay, maybe I'll get us there.

Man that was some crazy stuff, huh?
[laughs]

[crashing noise]

- It's stuck.

- You guys need help? Are you good?

- Yes.

- Mike, where are your lights at?
Let's set those up.

- Staying up here just keeps the-

- All right. Sorry about that.
I didn't mean that.

Okay, forward.

Beautiful. Yes, good job man.
All right, we got that taken care of.

You guys missed a little excitement. Mike
was doing some welding, a spark flew off,

hit the blanket and started a fire.
I go, uh oh. The first thing was,

what do I do? How do I take
care of this problem, right?

The only thing I could think
of was ice. I got a bag

of ice and I just dumped
it right on that blanket.

Then I thought I just wasted a
bag of ice that was not so smart but

I think that Mike got a little bit upset as
well. He threw his glasses in there and his

earmuffs or whatever and it's out.

- This rocket, every time I've tested it,
or the time I jumped four years ago,

we took it apart right afterward.
We took the

rocket nozzle off just knowing
what had happened there

and check the parts
there the course of

the parachutes were hanging
out of it everything

and just knowing what
this thing - it was exhausted.

It exhausted all the water vapor
out of it, it exhausted me.

It exhausted itself,

and there's a certain,
there's something to that.

It reminds me of a
friend of mine told me,

“We're supposed to come
to the end of our lives,

not with anything left but everything
exhausted. The tires are blown out,

you're out of gasoline,
you're coming to a screeching halt

and you've done everything
you can possibly do.

I guess there is some sense to that.

Anyway, we've got
someone coming up the road

here, I don't know who it is.

Hopefully, it's not anyone official.

I'm tired of dealing with people.

And it is.

How’re you doing?

Fine buddy.

I heard you're going to try again for this
Saturday.

I just wanted to come out and see exactly
where so we didn't have any conflicts

with the other properties.
-Oh yes, so

They relooked at the
property, of course, and

in fact even weirder he
says "Michael, at the edge of the prop-"

Charlie's the one who
used to run everything

for the most part for Albert here at Amboy.
- Mmmmhhm.

He was his righthand man,
now he's just hanging

around in Barstow
running his restaurant.

- Okay.

- He said even at the edge of this property
there's an abandoned car at the very edge

of this property. It has been there since
1963. Someone was killed in the car.

He thinks they hijacked him for the gold he
had.

- Oh, really?

- Yes.

They checked all this
property, this is the best way

to build the road and
that's what they did.

- Okay.

- We needed a flat place and
that's where we're at.

We're actually going to go vertical up.

- Okay.

- That way there's not, just like
I send an email to everyone,

there's a buffer for everywhere.

- Okay.

- We just want to
get through this and move on.

- Well, yes.

So, it looks like this is all
on private property.

- Oh, it is.

- It's all off BLM so
- Yes.

- I just wanted to come
out here and just make

sure that there weren't
any issues with BLM Property.

- Right.

- Well, good luck and
I wish you well.

Okay, buddy, thank you for your time.

I've had people come up
here while I'm digging

holes here 4 months
ago, on my hands and

knees, okay?

And they're asking me, “Can
I give you my number

and you can text me
were you getting ready

to jump?”

Really?

Yes, I'm going to stop
what I'm doing and text

about 50 people who
wants to come out and

see me where I'm asking for people not even
be here.

It's bizarre, it's bizarre.

- We made a lot of progress
this morning, getting

the ramp in a position
to lay the other rails

on to it so now we're just waiting on the
crane to help us out really.

- So what are we getting here?

- I think water and ice and a propane
little tank for maybe grilling something.

They have water.

Do you have ice here?

- No we don't.

- Okay, so we know that.

- Do you need a bag?

- A bag for what?

- Do you need a bag of ice?

- Yes. I need a bunch of ice if you can.

- How many do you need?
- A lot.

- I only got about four bags,
I can give you two of them at my place.

- Oh, really?
- Really!

- That's pretty cool.
We'll take those two.

- When I get done here, I'll go get them
and bring them back over to you.

- You will, will you? Okay. That's awesome.
Thank you so much, really appreciate it.

- I'm here to help.

- You're awesome and you only have-
- Don't let it go to my head.

- Well, only God is awesome, really.
You're good. How's that?

- [laughs]
- Will you take that one?

- Okay.

- All right, great.

Amboy California rocket launch.

Bunch of these shirts right here.

And they have the neat Route 66 logo
in the front. Oooooo!

Neat, huh? So yeah, this is pretty cool.
And uh, I think if-

You want them maybe signed, Mad
Mike himself can sign them for you.

But they're only $20.
So get them while they're hot!

Because I think February 3rd all these are
going to be gone without a doubt.

[background noise]

- This needs to be scooted this way.

- Why isn't it going up?

Okay, there it goes.

Hey, Waldo, how are you doing?

- Good.
- Yes, good!

We're getting it.

- It's good.

- He knows what he's doing. I know.
Yep. Yep. Yep.

- Now, what we got to do is,
we lash the whole thing together,

then we lift the whole rocket
up, and slide it in here.

- Yes, that's fine.

Okay, cool.

- Yeah, unwrap it. Take your time.
Get all the shit clear.

- Here I'll help.
Let me get up there and help.

- It almost looks like we know
what we're doing, you know? [laughs]

Almost.

Let the crane do the work. Let's go.
Get ready. It's going to happen now.

Come on!

Let him lift it.

Easy. That's it.

- Waldo, remind me to
recheck all this stuff

tomorrow, Okay? I was in a hurry.
Please?

- Okay.

Thursday we put the water and start heating
all Friday.

Launch, Saturday.

We're there.
It's going to happen.

- Yes.

- What a fucking nightmare, huh?

[laughter]

[music]

- Man, what a day yesterday.

- You got that right.

- I have never seen so much stuff
to get done in six hours.

That was a lot.

- Mike we have footage of
the lunar eclipse last night

- Okay
- which is the Earth's shadow, hitting

the moon, from the sun from being back
behind the globe.

So you don't know what the
flat Earth explanation is?

- Once again it's perception.

Some people think in the
flat Earth the moment

that basically the moon
is just a disk facing us.

I don't know.

- That's really interesting because
belief dictates behavior, right?

- It does.

- People may be walking
around in a false reality.

- Okay. Read what's in that right there.

One of the first ingredients.

High fructose corn syrup.

Your body don't know what to do with it.

- How about with that sweeteners from
aborted fetuses and stuff?

I mean, that's in food and everything.

That's some really, it is crazy, isn't it?

I don't subscribe to the flat Earth.

This whole flat Earth thing made
this whole thing a bit popular.

But I don't like to be played.

I don't like to be played
as a tool or whatever

and to believe stuff
that isn't real.

To find the truth, a good
place to start would

be to look in the Bible
and to research some

of the things that are said there.

The word firmament is in
the Bible many many times.

It's sort of a snow globe analogy.

The sky, the stars, and the heavens,

Outer space essentially.

That's all encapsulated
in this thing that the

King James Version refers
to as the firmament.

It leads people to the intelligent design
model of the universe.

This is Hebrews 11:1, Now faith

faith is the substance,

it's real, you can hold
on to it, right?

of things hoped for.

The evidence of things not seen.

Do you get what I'm saying?

That's Hebrews 11:1. I think
it's a very powerful verse.

It's beyond us.

See you, Mike!

With no services out there
in Amboy, you think

that you bring everything, but
then you run out of stuff.

You need extra stuff or whatever and it's
back and forth, back and forth.

How long it will you take you to fill that
thing?

Look at all these tanks here.
It's pretty cool, huh?

Do you know if they sell those little
propane bottles, for a barbecue?

I need ten of these, and four
or five of these.

I'm going to buy you out.

I'm going to get them all, eight of them.

I wonder what these things are.

[laughs].

Oh, boy, huh?

This is so cool.

It used to be peace out in the old days.

Now it's peace in, okay?

- Yes, my man.

Peace in guys.

- Pass it on man.

- If you guys need anything else
you know where to find us.

- You betcha.
- Take care.

All right, we'll see you.

Yes!
[laughs]

I think a steel cable is
the way to go, don't you?

I mean, this is important.
A life is on the line.

Where's your beer at?

Just one twelve pack?

Some kind of organic crackers or what have
you?

This stuff can go in juices too.

I got spinach.

I got a whole bunch of spinach.

I got two things of spinach.

I do.

Here we go.

We found something!

That's what we're looking for, right?
[laughs]

Peace in to you. It's not peace
out anymore. It's peace in.

- Peace in?

- Yes, it's peace in. Pass it on, okay?
- I will.

- All right.

- If it heats, nothing will stop it.

Think about that.

You're doing 100 miles an
hour, boom you launch,

you climb in fact,
you're going to arc over

my head a little bit.

You climb, you stall, your engine cuts out
a couple of seconds later.

Now you are going to go
higher, you'll still

climb, that's when
you'll start coming back.

What will happen is everything,
you'll tunnel vision.

In fact, you'll get two
little tunnels that go like

this like you're looking
through binoculars.

Then once it comes off power, it will come
back.

Look for the ground.

You'll know.

You'll know when you stop.

You quit climbing, and then you stop for a
second.

If you're climbing
straight up, which you

could be because even
though we've got a tilt

on it, it might act like a model
rocket where it comes off and makes squirly

stuff and then climbs up.

It could do that.

When it stalls, you'll stop.

It'll fall back like a
hammerhead stall like

an aircraft does when
you're doing stunts.

It'll fall like this and it'll go.

When it does that, boom, hit the chutes.

One, two.

One, two.

Do not use one.

Use two.

You're counting on something 10 years old
to save your life, use two.

They won't jam up.

You're planning on using one chute, aren't
you?

- Well, it depends on how it comes
down initially.

- I knew it.

- Depends on how it comes down.
If it feels like I'm coming down slow.

- I wouldn't use one chute. You can do
it if you want. It's your life, man.

Another thing too is you
don't have the hammock seat

so you're going to take
all the loads of the impact.

If you use that back chute, she's going to
be hanging straight down.

Pop!

You know what, I'll tell you, if you
use one chute, it's not a good idea.

But if I were you, what I
would do is, put my feet

against the floorboards,
put my head up against

the back 'cause you're going to hit like
a motherfucker.

Sunday, your life is different.

Sunday.

Now, if we can get people
out of here, we're

probably going to do it
before the ambulance shows up,

like maybe noon or one o'clock.

Someone starts circulating that it ain't
going to happen today.

- No, we're not saying that it's not
going to happen.

- But we don't want people by the
side of the road!

I want people to leave.

- No, listen.

We cannot say that it's not going to happen
today.

That's a lie.

I don't lie.

- Okay. Well, Pat, you got to
realize I don't want anyone here.

- I understand.
Believe me.

I'll put that caution tape all
the way through so it's handled.

- Well it depends, if
there's 1000, 2000 people

on the side of this
road, it ain't handled.

- There ain't going to be no 2000 people.

I mean, shoot, you only have $65
on GoFundMe.

Really, you think that the
whole world's looking at you?

I don't think so!

- All I know is there's
been people from about

6 to 10 different
countries come out here.

Yes, well, ya know, we'll see.

- Something else you need to be concerned
about with is my safety, Pat.

My safety, someone may come out
with a fucking gun to shoot me.

- Hey, wait a second, Mike.

Wait.

I just want to be clear, okay?

And I understand what you're
saying and believe you me,

throughout this entire
process, your safety

has been my major concern in every single
way, shape, and form.

- Someone could come here
with some weird thing

and they could shoot the
rocket, they could

- They're going to be all over here.

I promise.

I will make that promise.

If I have to be out here,
I'll make sure about it.

- Well, when people are wishing me dead,
I take that pretty seriously.

I guess they're going to have to
come through me first. How's that?

Pat, I'm going to put you in charge
of putting the water in the rocket.

Me and Mike, I'm going
to carry up the welder.

I brought the little welder.

It's here.

You're going to weld the other things.

Can you climb?
Are you going to be okay?

- I don't know.

- Okay, well here's what I'll do.
I'll go up there.

I'll put the welder up there.
I'll hang it.

Lord, Father, help me.

Give me the strength I need
to pull this shit off.

We just got to balls up and go up there and
weld or trust me to weld it, I'll weld it.

You always bitch about my weldings, so
I don't want to hear it.

Nice job, Pat.

I got to check the perimeter.

- Who gives a shit what he believes?

He's launching something pretty cool.

This is America.
We can believe whatever we want.

- Interesting theory but,
hey, get up there,

find me some proof and
I'll become a believer

because this guy's really the true
Rocketman, not the guy in Korea.

If he's successful, Amboy will
always be known as Rocket Town.

- Let's get the water in the rocket.
- Yes, let's get the water.

- You okay, Waldo?
- Yes, I'm okay.

I'll never use this hand
again, but I'm okay.

Stick it down in there, Mike.

It's going to take a little while.
- Yes.

- The reason I love steam rockets so much
is they're just so stinking simple.

I just love the fact
that you can get that

much propulsion out of
nothing more than water

that's heated up that hot.

Water has the unique ability
to store so much heat.

You could do it with liquid carbon dioxide
but getting liquid carbon dioxide is a heck

of a lot more complicated
than just opening

the faucet and filling
the thing with water.

- This bottle right here is the last gallon
you're going to put into the rocket.

I have a few drops of
water, that's holy water,

blessed by the Pope that
came from the Vatican.

It's powered by the faith of the Catholic
Church.

So when you put that in there, I'm hoping
it's going to add a little bit more

good luck to the project.

- Yes, we could use all of it.
- [laughs] I hear you.

Don't spill it.

- Yes, we're going out
to the main road, put

up our barricades to
keep the public out.

That's what Waldo and Mike asked me, at
least, people be back a quarter mile.

That's close to a half mile on the highway
and that'll be just great.

- There we go. They know where to come in.
All right, back to the

- Back to drawing board
- launch pad.

- That's all there is to it.

- Now, it's all a matter of time.

After the water hits 212 degrees, it'll
start turning into steam.

Then a few hours after that, it'll
start making really good pressure.

Then he gets in and goes.

- I'm a science teacher.

I teach at probably the closest
middle school to this place.

Flat Earthers, they give knowledge
something to push off of.

They're getting people to question.

Hopefully, the real science
flies like a rocket.

If the moon's going
around in a circle, there

has to be a force that
makes it go in there.

- Why can't it just be angels suspending it
all?

- Why can't it be what?

- Angels or why can't it be magic or God?

- Well, Kurt Vonnegut
said science is magic that works.

Like Mike, he had a scale rocket
he tested.

He believes in science
because I know he has

force divided by mass
equals acceleration.

Whether he walks away from this, it's going
to be based on science.

- That's it.

- Danny, this is my daughter Stephanie.
- No way, hi!

- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you!

- There's never a dull moment with him
as my father.

He's always doing some crazy project.

This isn't his dream but he sees that same
thing in Mike and I think that he's here to

support that as best as he can.

That's my biggest fear
today is that something

goes awry and he holds
it on his conscience.

- This one here on the side.

When it comes down to
that last few moments,

there's going to be some hesitation,
I don't care how tough you are.

- We came out to watch the rocket launch.

A lot of people's got the idea
that he's just some kind of a nut.

- This is the Wright
Brothers all over again

but it's 2018. This
is amazing stuff.

- Give it a little tap.

Danny, it's 150. The rocket's now taboo.

Tell everybody, okay?

None of you are allowed past this tent.

This is why.
It's a bomb.

It could spring a leak and it'll explode so
fast it'll tear you apart.

It'll kill everybody within a few hundred
feet of it.

Remember, that's a bomb.

All right, so I just got to pull the pin on
the big chute.

You're going to pull the pins on those
inside and hand them to me, right?

- Yes.

- I'll tap on the canopy and when
I tell you that,

we're going to pull
the blue thing away.

If there's any problem
- It don't even seem real.

- What do I do if shit goes south?

Did you leave a letter or something?

What the fuck do you want me to do?

If worse comes to worst, do you want me to
give your shit to your son?

Your son, okay. Whichever
son shows up, right? Okay.

We're about ready to make
some fucking history here.

That's what we're going to do.

You are armed and dangerous.
Are you ready?

- I guess so.

- I'm going to close the son of a bitch.

Here we go.
I'm leaving you now, okay?

Take it to your right. Okay, Pat, let
it fall on your side. Let it go.

Stay clear of it.
Let it fall.

Let's get out of here.

- Let's go, Mike!

- Come on, Mike.
Hang in there, buddy.

- We're all clear?

- Mike, launchpad is clear.
Godspeed, my buddy. Take care.

- Oh, shit!
Hey, tell him to hold one second.

Tell him to hold one second!
Tell him to hold one second!

- Mike, hold one second.

Waldo, he didn't acknowledge.
Get out of there!

You're clear, Mike.
Go for it.

- Mike, what is going on?

- [unintelligible]
- What did he say?

Say again.

- Mike, you got a copy?

- It's not releasing!

I don't know what to do.
The ball valve is stuck!

- Did it move at all?

No, it's stuck. [unintelligible]
- Say again.

- I think if it hasn't fired by now, it's
not going to fire!

- Okay.
I'm going to come get you.

Shit, I'm going to regret this.

- We're going to get him out of there.
- It's on hold right now.

- Okay.
What's the chance of it blowing right now?

- A lot!
- A lot?

Seriously. Honestly.
- Yes, I know. That's why

- What about, is there any way to relieve
pressure from somewhere else?

- There's no safe way
to discharge this from inside

or I would
already have done it.

- Okay. Hang tight. We're going to
get the ramp up and get you out.

- Get on that.
Turn your back in case the fucker launches.

Relax.
- Don't jerk!

Fucking give me a fucking break, would you?
- I'm sorry, Waldo.

- I'm getting you out of a
fucking armed rocket.

Hold onto the back of my neck. Hold onto
my shoulders. I'm going to pull you out.

Ready?
- No, no, no!

Be careful.
- Don't bitch. Come on.

Fucking do not touch that rocket.
I couldn't unarm that guy.

Come on.
- Hoist me out.

- Dude. Come on out. Here you go.

Step up on the platform.
Come on.

- That was my worst fucking nightmare.

Get me away from this motherfucker!
- Okay. Hold on. Hold on.

We won't be doing this today.
- The piston's locked inside.

- Back up, please!

The pistons locked inside
the rocket nozzle.

- Come on, walk it off.

- I thought maybe I left in the plug
for the vent because it will not fire

if the vent's plugged.

I kept pulling and pulling.
It was behind my helmet.

I finally got it through the tie strap and
there was no vent on it.

- That one rocket is still armed.
Okay?

We're going to have to do
some reengineering here.

What we got to do is, here's what we do.
We let the rocket cool down.

When it's down to
- The Piston's stuck in the nozzle.

I can't get it. I've armed it five times.
I yanked on the ball valve,

I turned the, it's got the proper pressure.

- Shit. Just kill me.

- Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four,
three, two, one!

Ignition.

Liftoff. Go Falcon Heavy.

[applause]

- My life is basically
stopped until this happens.

Everything I got is into this thing.

I'm in the World Series Poker.
I'm at the final table, okay?

And all my chips are pushed in.

I tell you that because I don't have my
rent money right now.

I was laid off from my job last Friday.

I don't have a car.

Everything's on that ramp right now, okay?

So I'm going to take pretty big offense
to anyone who thinks I chickened out

or didn't want to see this happen.
I've got to do this.

Everything I've got is in that rocket right
now.

- So what happened is the actuator last
time was a little too small.

It wouldn't launch.
It didn't have the power.

Now, he's gone to a bigger actuator which
was set at four inches in diameter.

Now it's six inches diameter.

It's double the size so the rocket should
fire today.

I got the whole inside of the
cockpit foamed and taped.

'Cause, when he builds things, he has bolts
sticking out.

He doesn't realize when
he's going to hit so

hard, all this stuff
becomes a razor blade.

It'd be silly that he survives the launch
and everything happens and then he hits the

ground and gets opened
up and bleeds out before

we get to him, so all
that stuff is foamed

up the best I could figure out.

- I have lived with Waldo
and his rocket adventures

all these years, 20 years
almost, but to actually

see a launch, I haven't
been a part of that.

If anything happens to Mike, I just didn't
want that in my head.

For some reason, today, I
just thought, "You know what?

Today's the day.

I need to come out."

- I forgot my lucky jacket.

It's time we're going to rock and roll now.

I can't launch a rocket or do
something crazy without lucky jacket.

- God does work in mysterious ways
especially here in the desert.

The whole reason for the faux pas last
time was just to get it right this time.

So, here we are.

We have all the right
stuff and it's countdown.

It's countdown to launch.

- Okay.

Hang on.
- I got it.

- I'm touching.
- Too high.

- Okay. Everyone away. Let's go!

- All right. Here we go.

Everything clear?
Over.

Is everything clear?
Over.

Everything is clear.
Go for it.

- Go! Go! Go!

[cheers]

- Chutes!
- Oh shit!

- I love it!

- It's coming right down over here!

- How am I coming down speedwise?

How am I coming down? Over.

- You're looking good.
A little fast baby.

- You think a little fast?

- Chute! Say hit the chute!

- Throw the other chute.

- Let's go!

Mike, you there?
You got a copy?

- This is something about dreams.

It's got to be big enough to scare you.

That's the first thing.

And for that kind of dream,
it takes everything.

It takes all your time, your
income, emotionally, physically.

It takes everything from you.
And it's supposed to.

Is it worth it? I think that's
another thing I ponder every day.

I don't know.
We'll see in the end.

- Mission accomplished
as self-taught rocket scientist

successfully launched himself into
the California sky.

- The Associated Press
reports 61 year old Mike

Hughes propelled himself
nearly 1900 feet into

the air in the Mojave Desert before landing
pretty hard.

Other than injuring his back, he should be
fine.

He says he's "relieved"
after the launch and

his ultimate goal is
to launch himself at

least 52 miles above Earth by the end of
the year to prove that the planet is flat.

- All those naysayers were wrong,
weren't they?

- Is that bizarre?

You didn't want to miss that, did you?

I wish I could've watched it.

I'd have a stunt double but I can't find
anybody with the hair like mine.

- You really kicked some A.

- Waldo I couldn't do it without you.

- Go, Waldo.

- Of course, you couldn't.

Now we go to space!

[cheering]

- Michael Hughes, Mad Mike
to his fans, now has

a plan to go 62 miles up
to the edge of space

where he'll be able to see, or not see the
curve of Earth.

- My rocket will fire, pull me through
the balloon

and then actually once
the rocket quits firing

I will actually fly like Superman for like
another 30 seconds.

- [laughs]
My favorite, barbecued moron.

- Where do you want me to put my money?
I'm being honest.

- I would think putting Mad
Mike in space for $2 million.

- You better make that motherfucker a two
seater and I want to sit in front.

I don't want to sit behind
you because I don't

want the last thing of
us going into Earth

is me penetrating through you.
[laughter]

What would it take for me to convince you
that the world is round?

- I don't believe anyone
could convince me the

world is round because
they have no proof.

- Well, have you ever seen the
Queen of England?

- Not in person.
- Okay, then does she exist?

- I don't know.

- Bet you've never seen the face of
a sexually satisfied woman. Burn!

[laughter]

Mad Mike, you done?