“I’m tired of people saying I chickened out and didn’t build a rocket,” he said after being checked out by paramedics.

“I’m tired of that stuff; I manned up and did it.”

Mr Hughes worked on overhauling his rocket in his garage for months before the launch on Saturday, which was given the go-ahead by Albert Okura, who owns Amboy.

He converted a mobile home into a ramp and modified it to launch from a vertical angle so he would not fall back to the ground on public land.

It appeared Saturday might bring another string of cancellations, given the wind was blowing and his rocket was losing steam.

But some time after 3pm, and without a countdown, Mr Hughes’ rocket soared into the sky.

He reached a speed he estimated to be around 563 km/h before pulling his parachute. 

The limo driver was dropping too fast, though, and had to deploy a second one.

He landed with a thud and the rocket’s nose broke in two places as designed.

“This thing wants to kill you 10 different ways,” said Mr Hughes, who had an altimeter in his cockpit to measure his altitude.

“Am I glad I did it? Yeah, I guess. I’ll feel it in the morning. I won’t be able to get out of bed.”