Ellison Onizuka (Credit: NASA)
The first Asian American to launch into space has been chosen as the namesake for a commercial cargo vehicle set to deliver supplies and science to the International Space Station.
Northrop Grumman has christened its next Cygnus flying a commercial resupply services mission for NASA (NG-16) after Ellison Onizuka, who on Jan. 28, 1986, died with his six crewmates on the ill-fated final flight of the space shuttle Challenger.
A U.S. Air Force flight test engineer and test pilot with more than 1,700 flight hours, Onizuka was selected to become an astronaut with NASA’s 1978 class of space shuttle astronauts, the agency’s first group to accept minority and women candidates.