Mandla Maseko

Mandla Maseko (27 August 1988 – 6 July 2019) was a South African aviator, who aimed to be the first black African in space.

Mandla Maseko
Born27 August 1988 
Soshanguve 
Died6 July 2019  (aged 30)

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
  1. "Mandla on his way to space". Letaba Herald. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  2. "Mandla Maseko Biography, Education, Age, Twitter, Instagram". WikiSouthAfrica. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  3. France-Presse, Agence (8 July 2019). "Bike crash kills South African man set to be first 'Afronaut'". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  4. "Would-be African astronaut dies in road crash". 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  5. 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.
  6. Smith, David (23 December 2013). "Contest winner Mandla Maseko set to become first black African in space". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
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