In January 1978, Onizuka was selected from 8,000 applicants to fill one of 35 positions in NASA’s Space Shuttle Program. He was the first Japanese American selected to participate in it and completed the year-long training and evaluation program in August 1979.

Subsequently, he worked at the Kennedy Space Center and supported the Shuttle Avionics and Integration Laboratory (SAIL), as a software tester, checkout crew, and was part of other technical assignments ranging from astronaut crew equipment specialist and orbiter crew compartment coordinator, to systems and payload development specialist.

Seven years later, Onizuka was a mission specialist in the first group of astronauts recruited for the space shuttle era, as a member of the class known as the Thirty-Five New Guys or Group 8. These people were NASA’s first new group of astronauts since 1969. Onizuka trained with fellow scientists and engineers, along with the country’s first women and Black astronauts. Together, they carried out missions meant to make spaceflight more routine and practical. 

On Jan. 24, 1985, Onizuka entered space as the mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery, the United States’ first classified manned military space flight. Not much is known other than it was successful. It was on this flight that he became the first Asian American to venture into space.

While some astronauts often wait two or more years between mission assignments, Onizuka was selected to join the Challenger flight as his next assignment in January 1986. The crew of this flight were carefully selected to reflect the spirit of the United States, with a diverse group with different backgrounds, and from across different regions of the country.

Aboard this flight were six other crew members, including an elementary school teacher who would be the first “ordinary citizen” to go to space, four crew mates Onizuka knew from NASA’s astronaut class of 1978. At the time, they were the most diverse space crew to fly for the United States, as this flight included two women and one Black man, along with Onizuka. Their mission was to deploy a large communications satellite and retrieve an astronomy payload to study Halley’s Comet. In addition, the teacher onboard would conduct the first lessons for school children from orbit. It was called the Teacher in Space Project, a NASA program that President Ronald Reagan announced in 1984, designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in math, science, and space exploration.

On Jan. 28, 1986, millions of Americans watched live as the Challenger shuttle launched into space, and at 11:39 a.m.—73 seconds after liftoff—tragically exploded, ending the seven lives onboard instantly. Onizuka was 39 years old at the time of his death.

Onizuka’s family, his wife and two daughters, received a special memento, a soccer ball, after the space shuttle’s debris was found and processed, and personal possessions were returned to the crew’s families. The soccer ball was inscribed with well wishes and signatures from one of Onizuka’s daughter’s Clear Lake High School soccer team, which he helped coach. Thirty years later, astronaut Shane Kimbrough, whose son attended the same school as Onizuka’s daughter, took the ball on his expedition aboard shuttle Expedition 49 to symbolically complete Onizuka’s final mission. The ball is currently on display at the International Space Station. 

Onizuka’s legacy is kept alive with the Ellison Onizuka International Airport in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy in Hilo, Hawai’i, and the Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Center in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i (though it is currently closed). The U.S. Air Force has also named two installations in his honor: the Ellison Onizuka Satellite Operations Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base and the Onizuka Air Force Station in Sunnyvale, California (though it closed in 2010). There are also a number of streets, schools, libraries, and other sites in Hawai’i, Japan, and California named in his memory including an asteroid, a crater on the moon, and other sites. Onizuka was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel in the U.S. Air Force in 1986. In 2004, President George W. Bush awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Onizuka and his Challenger crewmates.

In addition, U.S. passport holders might recognize Onizuka’s words on the last page or their passports, which quotes part of his 1980 message to his alma mater, Konawaena High School:

“Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds…to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.”

Inside the back cover illustrates space imagery including the Earth, moon, and a shuttle as Onizuka’s legacy urges us all to continue exploring, dream bigger, and reach beyond the stars.