Mission specialist Ellison Onizuka was one of the astronauts killed when the space shuttle Challenger exploded during its launch on 28 January, 1986.

He and six other people died in the catastrophe which was caused by a faulty joint on one of the booster rockets. The structure of the external fuel tank collapsed as a result and the astronauts are believed to have perished soon after its disintegration.

The disaster followed several days of delay to the launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Bad weather caused the first setback and a faulty hatch led to further stoppages. Several engineers had expressed concern before the launch about the abnormally low temperature.

The STS-51-L mission was to be NASA’s 25th shuttle flight and Challenger’s 10th. It was notable because it was the first time a civilian, teacher Christa McAuliffe, had been included in a shuttle crew.

Ellison Shoji Onizuka was born in Kealakekua, Hawaii, on 24 June, 1946. He was of Japanese-American descent and was one of four children to Masamitsu and Mitsue Onizuka.

Raised in Hawaii, he received a Bachelor and Masters degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and trained as an Air Force officer during this time.

He entered active duty with the United States Air Force in 1970 as a flight test engineer and as a test pilot at McClellan and Edwards Air Force bases in California. He was selected for the astronaut programme in January 1978.

On his first exploration in Space Shuttle Discovery he was in space for a total of 74 hours. He was one of three mission specialists on the STS-51-L mission which was charged with deploying satellites.

Several buildings were named in his honour, including Onizuka Air Force Station in Sunnyvale, California, Onizuka Center for International Astronomy on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, Onizuka Village family housing on Hickam Air Force Base and the Onizuka Space Center at Kona International Airport in Hawaii.

A quote from him appears in US passports: "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."