Mandla Maseko
Mandla Maseko | |
|---|---|
| Born | 27 August 1988 Candidate 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
DJ, and a biker.[3]
In 2013 he was one of 23 winners out of a million entrants to a competitionsuborbital 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
- ^ "Mandla on his way to space". Letaba Herald. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ a b c "Bike crash kills South African man set to be first 'Afronaut'". The Guardian. Agence France-Presse. 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ a b c d e "Would-be African astronaut dies in road crash". 8 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ Stephanie Busari and Stephanie Halasz. "South African 'Spaceboy' set to be first black African in space dies in crash". CNN. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
- ^ Smith, David (23 December 2013). "Contest winner Mandla Maseko set to become first black African in space". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2019.