"Mad" Mike Hughes, a 61-year-old limo driver and stuntman, is going to launch himself on his homemade rocket on Saturday, 25 November, according to a report in the Associated Press.

Hughes, who incidentally believes in the theory of a flat Earth, has made a do-it-yourself steam-powered rocket in his garage using aluminium bought from local metal shops. The booster rocket – which cost around $20,000 (£15,100) to build – uses a nozzle fashioned out of an aircraft's air filter, and is set to blast off from a ramp attached to a motorhome.

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Hughes will first heat up around 70 gallons of water and then launch himself in the DIY rocket at 2-3pm local time in Amboy, California.

The booster will take the California native up to an altitude of 1,800ft at speeds of around 500mph. Once the target altitude is achieved, the stuntman will deploy a couple of parachutes to make a safe landing on the ground.

The launch will take place at an airstrip next to an old hangar in the ghost town of Amboy in the Mojave Desert. Hughes says he has taken permission from town officials and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration. However, spectators have been discouraged from coming to see the launch live, primarily due to safety concerns.

"If you're not scared to death, you're an idiot," Hughes told AP. "It's scary as hell, but none of us are getting out of this world alive." It will be Hughes' second manned launch on a steam-powered rocket after 2014, when he touched a peak altitude of 1,374ft before making a rough landing.

According to the limo driver, there is no difference between science and science fiction. "I don't believe in science. I know about aerodynamics and fluid dynamics and how things move through the air, about the certain size of rocket nozzles, and thrust. But that's not science, that's just a formula."

The report says that the launch will be live-streamed on Hughes' YouTube channel, but his website noted that the lift-off will be showcased on Internet PPV.

Despite the homemade rocket launch being fraught with risks, Hughes is pumped up about it and is already planning to take it to the next level with a short expedition into space. He plans to do this with a rocket which would launch from a certain altitude with the help of a gas-filled balloon.