Those of you who are familiar with the flat-Earth cultists will not be entirely surprised by this: One of their number, Michael Hughes, is dead after trying to launch a homemade rocket into orbit in order to “shut the door on this ball Earth.”

The Science Channel, which was there filming the madness, put out a gently self-exonerating statement: “It was always his dream to do this launch [and] Science Channel was there to chronicle his journey.”


Perhaps it was always his dream to seek attention and adulation as an analgesic against whatever madness it was that haunted him.