A South African man who won the chance to be the first black African in space, has died in a motorbike crash.
Mandla Maseko, a part-time DJ and candidate officer with the South African Air Force was nicknamed 'Afronaut' after landing a coveted seat to fly 103km into space in 2013 in a competition organized by the US-based Space Academy.
He died in motorcircle accident on saturday. The 30-year-old beat a million other entrants from 75 countries to be selected as one of the 23 people who will travel on an hour-long suborbital trip on the Lynx Mark ll Spaceship.
His win was a source of National Pride and had many neighbours congratulating him for putting South Africa's townships on the 'galactic map'. He had spent a week at the Kennedy Space Academy in Florida where he skydived and undertook air combat and G-force training.
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