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Mandla Maseko is described as a typical township boy
A South African who was lucky enough to be the first African black in space died of a motorcycle accident before making his dream come true.
Mandla Maseko, 30, was killed on Saturday, according to a family statement.
In 2013, the South African Air Force member defeated a million participants to win one of 23 seats at an area academy in the United States.
Nicknamed Afronaut and Spaceboy, Maseko is described as a typical boy from the township of Pretoria.
- The first black African moving towards space
He had spent a week at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida conducting tests for a one – hour suborbital flight, originally scheduled for 2015.
Maseko said he wanted to do something that would motivate and inspire young people in Africa and prove that they could do anything, regardless of their background.
He told the BBC that he planned to call them from the space. "I hope to have a line that will be used in the years to come – as Neil Armstrong did," he said.
The 82-year-old American astronaut who died in 2012 was the first man to walk on the moon in 1969.
As he was heading towards the lunar surface, he said, "It's a small step for the man, a big step for the man."
- Obituary: Neil Armstrong, moon landing astronaut
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