On February 22 “Mad” Mike Hughes died when his self-built steam rocket crashed shortly after takeoff. Hughes was a famous flat-earther, one of a growing group who do not accept that Earth is an oblate spheroid (which it is). His fatal launch was apparently general daredevilry and not an attempt to gather data for flatearthism. Although coverage by our friends at Space.com quoted him as saying in a 2017 documentary, “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.”