“Mad” Mike Hughes, a limousine driver, is gearing up to launch himself on a mile-long flight over the Mojave Desert in a rocket he built himself by repurposing a used mobile home. His goal is to prove the Earth is flat. Oh yeah, did we mention Hughes doesn’t believe in science?

“I don’t believe in science,” Hughes added. “I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that’s not science, that’s just a formula. There’s no difference between science and science fiction.”

Hughes’ grand plan is to send himself 1,800 feet in the air at a speed of 500 mph before pulling out his parachutes. Hughes has experience working in NASCAR pit crews, and claims he “has been building rockets for years.”

Hughes converted to the flat-Earth belief recently, after his first fundraising campaign earned just $310 of its $150,000 goal. His second campaign succeeded in hitting its $7,875 goal.

“I’ve been a believer for maybe almost a year. I researched it for several months in between doing everything else — you know, I’ve still got to make a living and all that kind of stuff, and building this rocket actually eats up a lot of my time,” he told the flat-Earth Web show. “But when I’m not doing that, I research things.”

Hughes envisions the launch as the first step toward eventually getting himself into space, where he can use photography “to prove once and for all this Earth is flat,” he told his interviewer.

“This is the king of the deceptions,” Hughes said. “Once this domino falls, this is it.”

Source: npr.org