Mandla Maseko
Mandla Maseko | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 August 1988  Soshanguve |
| Died | 6 July 2019 (aged 30) |
| Other names | Afroboy |
Mandla Maseko (27 August 1988 – 6 July 2019) was a South African aviator, who aimed to be the first black African in space.
Biography
He was born in Soshanguve, north Pretoria,[1] on 27 August 1988[2] to an auto tool maker and a school cleaner.[3] He was a candidate officer of the South African Air Force,[3] as well as a private pilot, a DJ, and a biker.[4]
In 2013 he was one of 23 winners out of a million entrants to a competition[4] by the Axe Apollo Space Academy[5] to attend a US space academy, in order to be the first black African in space. He was nicknamed "Afronaut" and "Spaceboy". He went to the Kennedy Space Center for a week to do tests, such as skydiving and a journey on a reduced-gravity aircraft, ahead of a planned one-hour suborbital flight[4] on board a XCOR Lynx Mark II[3] that was planned to take place in 2015. However, the flight did not happen as XCOR Aerospace went bankrupt in 2017.[4] He would have been the third South African in space, after Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and Mike Melvill in 2004.[6]
He died on 6 July 2019 in a motorbike accident, aged 30.[4]
References
- ^ "Mandla on his way to space". Letaba Herald. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ "Mandla Maseko Biography, Education, Age, Twitter, Instagram". WikiSouthAfrica. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ a b c France-Presse, Agence (8 July 2019). "Bike crash kills South African man set to be first 'Afronaut'". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ a b c d e "Would-be African astronaut dies in road crash". 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ CNN, Stephanie Busari and Stephanie Halasz. "South African 'Spaceboy' set to be first black African in space dies in crash". CNN. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
{{cite news}}:|last1=has generic name (help) - ^ Smith, David (23 December 2013). "Contest winner Mandla Maseko set to become first black African in space". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2019.