The Tale of Two Space Legends

May 24, 1543 - Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus dies to give way to future astronomers and space cowboys like Mad Mike Hughes. Copernicus believed the Earth was spherical and not the center of the universe. Mad Mike believes believed the Earth is completely flat, and to prove that theory he was willing to shoot himself into space for Science Channel cameras. 

This launch happened February 22, 2020 and kind of got swept under the rug with whispers of Coronavirus in the news. Michael Hughes tragically fell short of the stars after the parachute on his steam-powered rocket deployed during launch, giving the rocket nothing to slow its landing back to earth. 

The 1960's taught us that getting people to space is extremely hard, and even with NASA's smartest engineers, shit still goes wrong. 'Homemade Astronauts' sounds entertaining as fuck, but how did this get approved for TV?  

The only profession you could do from home that would raise more red flags would be having a civil war surgery shack in your backyard for a 'Homemade Surgeon' series. Then not far below hacking people up is building homemade rockets, which is one level above unabomber. 

RIPIP to two sides of the argument, but two space legends nonetheless.