Hughes' goal had been to verify his belief in a disc-shaped Earth by flying to space, with successive launches taking him higher and higher in altitude. His first rocket launch in 2014 took him to 1,374 feet, but successive launches didn't travel much higher. A 2018 flight peaked at 1,875 feet.

It's not clear at this stage why the rocket failed. Hughes had a tight budget, though, having spent about $18,000 on the rocket. He partly relied on crowdfunding from fellow Flat Earth devotees over the years. The daredevil didn't have the advantage of extensive safety measures and tests, then, and had defied the odds by emerging from past landings with relatively minor injuries.