JOHANNESBURG - Mandla Maseko, a South African man who had won the opportunity to become the first black African to go into space, has died in a motorcycle crash. Maseko was killed in Pretoria over the weekend, according to a family statement reported by local media Monday. His goal was to go into suborbital flight in which he would experience weightlessness. “I want to be able to float and see outside the window and see this big round blue and white ball that is called earth,” Maseko told The Associated Press in 2014. Maseko, who came from a poor township outside Pretoria, said that his role model was Nelson Mandela.

Source: thestar July 08, 2019 10:41 UTC