Editing Ellison Onizuka (section)

==NASA career==
[[File:The STS-51L Crew (15871993874).jpg|thumb|The STS-51L Crew]]
Onizuka was selected for the astronaut program in January 1978 and completed one year of evaluation and training in August 1979.<ref>{{cite journal|title=In Honor of Ellison Onizuka|journal=The Rotarian|date=April 1986}}</ref> Later, he worked in the experimentation team, Orbiter test team, and launch support crew at [[Kennedy Space Center]] for the STS-1 and STS-2. At NASA, Onizuka worked on the [[Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory]] (SAIL) test and revision software team.

Onizuka's first space mission took place on January 24, 1985, with the launch of mission [[STS-51-C]] on [[Space Shuttle Discovery|Space Shuttle ''Discovery'']], the first Space Shuttle mission for the [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Boyne |first=Walter J. |url=https://archive.org/details/beyondwildbluehi0000boyn/page/496 |title=Beyond the Wild Blue: A History of the U.S. Air Force, 1947-2007 |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-312-35811-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/beyondwildbluehi0000boyn/page/496 496] |url-access=registration}}</ref> He was accompanied by 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 Kennedy Space Center on January 27, 1985. Onizuka had completed a total of 74 hours in [[Outer space|space]].<ref name=nasa/>

[[File:Onizukagrave.jpg|thumb|right|Gravesite of Onizuka]]
Onizuka was assigned to the mission [[STS-51-L]] on the [[Space Shuttle Challenger|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 payload specialists [[Gregory Jarvis]] and [[Christa McAuliffe]]. The shuttle was destroyed when a flame jet leaking from a solid rocket booster ruptured the liquid hydrogen fuel tank 73 seconds after launch. All seven crew members were killed.

Following the ''Challenger'' disaster, examination of the recovered vehicle cockpit revealed that three of the crew members' [[Personal Egress Air Pack]]s were activated: those of Onizuka, Resnik, and Smith. The location of Smith's activation switch, on the back side of his seat, means that either Resnik or Onizuka could have activated it for him. This is the only evidence available from the disaster that shows Onizuka and Resnik were alive after the cockpit separated from the vehicle. However, if the cabin had lost pressure, the packs alone would not have sustained the crew during the two-minute descent.<ref>{{cite web |author=Kerwin |first=Joseph P. |date=July 28, 1986 |title=Letter from Joseph Kerwin to Richard Truly relating to the deaths of the astronauts in the Challenger accident |url=http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/kerwin.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090723220719/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/kerwin.html |archive-date=July 23, 2009 |access-date=October 20, 2009 |publisher=National Aeronautics and Space Administration}}</ref>

Onizuka was buried at the [[National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific]] in [[Honolulu]].<ref name="graves" /> At the time of his death, he held the rank of [[lieutenant colonel]]. Onizuka was [[Posthumous award|posthumously]] promoted to the rank of [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]].<ref>
[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-100/pdf/STATUTE-100-Pg3350.pdf An Act To Authorize the President to Promote Posthumously the Late Lieutenant Colonel Ellison S. Onizuka to the Grade of Colonel.]</ref>