support crew at the Kennedy Space Center for the STS-1 and STS-2. At NASA, he worked on the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) test and revision software team. He also collaborated on other technical projects, for instance, as astronaut crew team coordinator.

His first space mission took place on January 24, 1985, with the Kennedy Space Center launch of mission STS 51-C on Space Shuttle Discovery, the first space shuttle mission for the Department of Defense. Onizuka was accompanied by the commander Ken Mattingly, pilot Loren Shriver, fellow mission specialist James Buchli, and payload specialist Gary E. Payton. During the mission, Onizuka was responsible for the activities of the primary payloads, which included the unfolding of the Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) surface. After 48 orbits around the Earth, Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center on January 27, 1985. Onizuka had completed a total of 74 hours in space.

Onizuka was assigned to the mission STS 51-L on the Space Shuttle Challenger that took off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:38:00 EST (16:38:00 UTC) on January 28, 1986. The other Challenger crew members were commander Dick Scobee, pilot Michael J. Smith, mission specialists Ronald McNair, Judith Resnik, and Gregory Jarvis, and payload specialist Christa McAuliffe. Challenger was destroyed by aerodynamic stress when rupture of the fuel tank at 73 seconds after launch turned the spacecraft out of proper position. All seven crew members were killed. NASA had estimated that the probability of a catastrophic accident during launch, the most perilous portion of space flight, was 1 in 438.

Ellison was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

At the time of his death, Onizuka held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Posthumously, Onizuka was promoted to the rank of Colonel.

Onizuka belonged to the following organizations: Society of Flight Test Engineers, the Air Force Association, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Tau, Arnold Air Society, and Triangle Fraternity.

Among his distinctions are the Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, Air Force Organizational Excellence Award, and National Defense Service Medal. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart medal and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

Onizuka Air Force Station in Sunnyvale, California, Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Mauna Kea Visitor Information Station on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, Onizuka Village family housing on Hickam Air Force Base and the Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Center, http://www.onizukaspacecenter.org at Kona International Airport in Hawaii are dedicated to him.

Two astronomical features were also named after him: an asteroid discovered by Edward L. G. Bowell on February 8, 1984, 3355 Onizuka and a 29-km-diameter crater on the Moon, Onizuka. Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, California also has a street named after him, as does the street surrounding Whitcomb Elementary in Clear Lake City, Houston, Texas, where his daughters attended school at the time of the Challenger disaster.

The Visitor’s Station for the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawai’i is named in his honor.

Triangle Fraternity has the Ellison Onizuka Young Alumnus Award in tribute to him.

The Engineering Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder has a conference room named after him.

Page 28 (Page X of additional page inserts) of every new U.S. passport contains this quote:
“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.” – Ellison S. Onizuka