14th Annual Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Science Day

Hawai‘i Space Grant Consortium was proud to again co-sponsor Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Science Day, an annual event in Hilo honoring Hawaii’s native son. Additional co-sponsors are the American Savings Bank, The Onizuka Memorial Committee, the Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Space Center, the Onizuka family, the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo (UHH), UHH Conference Center, and Future Flight Hawai‘i, together with the support of the Waiakea High School Key Club and the Zonta Club of Hilo. This year’s event, the 14th annual, featured 20 workshops, displays by organizations and companies, and a special keynote address by NASA Astronaut Rex Walheim a veteran of three space flights who served as Mission Specialist on STS-135, which was the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program. Astronaut Walheim’s keynote speech had a standing-room-only capacity crowd of 600. The day closed with a “Science is Fun” show by award-winning teacher “Mr. Science” Dale Olive (Waiakea High School) and his mapcap partner “Mr. Physical Trainer.”