Group 8 (1978)
Ellison Onizuka
First Asian American in space.
Ellison Onizuka, an Air Force flight test engineer from a Japanese American farming family in Hawaii, became the first Asian American in space aboard Discovery’s classified Department of Defense mission in January 1985.
He was a mission specialist on STS-51-L, carrying a soccer ball from his daughter’s team that was later recovered and flown to the ISS in his honor. The Onizuka name now marks Hawaii’s international airport in Kona and astronomy facilities on Mauna Kea.