About Ellison Onizuka
Ellison Shoji Onizuka was an American astronaut, engineer, and U.S. Air Force flight test engineer from Kealakekua, Hawaii, who successfully flew into space with the Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-51-C. He died in the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger, on which he was serving as Mission Specialist for mission STS-51-L. Onizuka was the first Asian American and the first person of Japanese ancestry to reach space. Onizuka's first space mission took place on January 24, 1985, with the launch of mission STS-51-C on Space Shuttle Discovery, the first Space Shuttle mission for the Department of Defense. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. Onizuka had two older sisters, Shirley and Norma, and a younger brother, Claude, who became the family spokesman after the Challenger disaster.
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