Mandla Maseko, a 25-year-old local DJ in Mabopane, South Africa, will be the first black African to go to space after winning a competition with the U.S. Space Academy, AFP.com reported.
The DJ from the town of Mabopane bear Pretoria in South Africa will be the first of his family to go anywhere besides South Africa, much less space, in 2015 after beating a million other people who entered the same contest, according to the AFP.
The trip to space is sponsored by the AXE Apollo Space Academy and and by Unilever and space tourism firm Space Expedition Corporation (SXC), the AFP reported. Maseko received the news on Dec. 5, shortly after the death of Nelson Mandela was announced.
It all began with a picture of Maseko jumping in the air, according to the AFP. The initial entry requirement was a picture of the person jumping from any type of height.
Maseko wanted to jump off the roof of his parents three bedroom house, but his mother would not allow it, the AFP reported. He ended up jumping off the house perimeter reaching almost six feet and his friend got the shot of him in the air using a cellphone.
The picture of Maseko got him to the final steps of the competition and after he passed the physical and aptitude tests needed in order to move forward, he is now one of 23 people who will take an hour long orbit around the earth, the AFP reported.
Maseko's mother works as a school cleaner and his father is an auto tool maker in a nearby township, and due to financial issues, he had to postpone his studies as a civil engineer student, AFP reported.
The DJ plans to study aeronautical engineering and works as a space mission specialist and holds the dream that one day he will be able to plant the South African flag on the moon, according to the AFP.
Maseko has already spent a week at the Kennedy Space Academy in Florida where he skydived and undertook air combat and G-force training, the AFP reported.
While in Florida he had the opportunity to meet US astronaut Buzz Aldrin and said he remembers thinking "This is how it feels to be out in space," according to the AFP.
