Mandla Maseko
Born(1988-08-27)27 August 1988
Soshanguve, South Africa
Died6 July 2019(2019-07-06) (aged 30)
Occupation(s)Military officer trainee, private pilot, DJ
Known forSelection in the Axe Apollo Space Academy; Would have been the first Black South African in space.
Military career
Allegiance South Africa
Service/branchSouth African Air Force
RankCandidate officer

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

Biography

He was born in Soshanguve, north Pretoria,[1] to an auto tool maker and a school cleaner.[2] He was a candidate officer of the South African Air Force,[2] as well as a private pilot, a DJ, and a biker.[3]

In 2013 he was one of 23 winners out of a million entrants to a competition[3] by the Axe Apollo Space Academy[4] to attend a US space academy, in order to be the first black South 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[3] on board a XCOR Lynx Mark II[2] that was planned to take place in 2015. However, the flight did not happen as XCOR Aerospace went bankrupt in 2017.[3] He would have been the third South African in space, after Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and Mike Melvill in 2004.[5]

He died on 6 July 2019 in a motorbike accident, aged 30.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Mandla on his way to space". Letaba Herald. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 "Bike crash kills South African man set to be first 'Afronaut'". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Would-be African astronaut dies in road crash". 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  4. ↑ Stephanie Busari and Stephanie Halasz. "South African 'Spaceboy' set to be first black African in space dies in crash". CNN. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  5. ↑ 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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