Name
Date
Class
#
Ellison Onizuka
Being able to escape Earth’s gravitational pull and travel in space is the dream of many
young people. Young Ellison Onizuka, a descendent of Japanese immigrants, may
have been dreaming of space travel as he studied the stars through a telescope at
Honolulu’s Bishop Museum.
Onizuka carried his interest in space into adulthood. He studied aerospace engineering
at the University of Colorado and then spent eight years as a test pilot and flight
engineer in the Air Force. He became an astronaut candidate with the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1978.
In 1985, he got his first opportunity to go into space. He flew on the space shuttle
Discovery with a crew of four other members. This was a secret mission, carrying a
military spy satellite. The crew remained in orbit for three and one half days.
As with any space launch, the members of the crew were lying on their backs,
strapped into their seats for liftoff. During liftoff, they felt as if a huge weight was
sitting on them and they were being pushed back into their seats. When they began
to orbit Earth, they were able to leave their seats and move around freely. The
weightlessness they felt was a strange and novel experience.
Onizuka was chosen to be a mission specialist on the space shuttle Challenger.
Challenger had flown many times before, but this January 28, 1986, flight was ill-fated.
A little over one minute after lift off, a fire caused an explosion. The spacecraft
crashed into the ocean, killing all seven of the crew members.