A man who planned to launch himself in a homemade steam-powered rocket in order to prove that the Earth is flat has failed to do so. “Mad” Mike Hughes is a conspiracy theorist who made headliens around the world with his wacky plan to launch himself in a rocket and take photographs of what he believes is a flat Earth.

However Hughes repeatedly delayed the launch, and when it finally came time to actually launch his rocket on Saturday, his viewers on his live stream at Noize TV witnessed him simply fail to lift off. He called the situation “aggravating” and appeared to not know what to do next.

Hughes thinks a faulty plunger or blown o-ring might be to blame, and still hopes to launch the rocket, perhaps as earlier as this week. In the meantime, he is engaged in a number of lawsuits against California officials like Governor Jerry Brown and Sen. Kamala Harris. He has also been fighting with the Bureau of Land Management, which forced him to cancel a previous launch due to a plan to simply dump the rocket on public land.

Hughes thinks he only needs to launch himself 1,800 feet above the ground in order to get high enough to prove that the Earth is flat. By contrast, the typical cruising altitude of a commercial airliner is about 30,000 to 40,000 feet.

He has had some cordial exchanges with his fans on Facebook.

“Do we get a refund when you die / realize the earth is indeed round?” asked Ryan Potts.

“Brandon shut up and go away or better yet lets compare resumes or please show me how many world records you have although you record for the worlds biggest turd probably is not official,” Mad Mike replied.