For 24 years, the Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Center helped keep alive the memory of a local hero while introducing travelers — especially children — to the wonders of space.
For 24 years, the Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Center helped keep alive the memory of a local hero while introducing travelers — especially children — to the wonders of space.
In March — 30 years after the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster that claimed the life of South Kona’s Onizuka — that legacy is going away.
“In the next few months, people should go visit if they can,” said Rick Asbach, one of the directors of the nonprofit facility. “It would be good if we could get some places in the community to put some of the things on display, rather than putting them in storage and having them sort of melt away.”
The state Department of Transportation offered to construct a new building directly across the street from the current location at the Kona International Airport terminal. But after several years of working with the DOT and considering four different sites, the governing board of the space center decided higher costs of operating a much larger building, along with other new costs and responsibilities, are just too much for the facility to absorb.
The center will close its doors at the end of March. In its place will be constructed a new gateway to an airport renovation priced at $70 million.
It’s a sad development for those close to the center and those who work there — some of whom have been with the facility since it opened and knew the famed space explorer as a child.
Beth Raphael, who works at the front desk and gift shop, said the center has had people visit as fourth-graders and come back as adults.
The center’s real success has been with children. About 8,000 students visit each year, said Claude Onizuka, brother of the astronaut and chairman of the center’s governing board. In all, about 14,000 people a year stop in.
“If I had just one heartfelt wish, it would be that we could continue educating and inspiring youngsters in memory of Ellison and his Challenger crewmates,” said curator Nancy Tashima.
But the center also has struggled with attendance. Tighter security in a post-9/11 world had an immediate effect on visitor numbers, Onizuka said. People who made it through security became much less likely to come back out and visit the center, he said. But even in more recent years, the number of visitors has declined.
The proposed space center, which would have been built at the old rental car facility, would have been significantly larger than the current 2,500 square feet. The center would no longer have gotten a break on utilities like it does now. Additionally, the center would have had to have come up with a business plan for using the space and being sustainable, such as subleasing to another tenant, said State Rep. Cindy Evans, D-North Kona, Kohala.
“We were going to give them a shell,” Evans said. “They were going to be faced with building museum displays. They would have been responsible for getting it all built out.”
The center also recently had to pick up the cost of a curator staff position that was cut by the state.
“It’s a lot of factors at once,” Onizuka said.
“We need to thank the community, the people of Hawaii and everyone who has visited over the past 25 years,” he added.
The Onizuka Memorial Committee will remain operational and active in science events, scholarships and other outreach, Onizuka said.
Yank Eppinger and his wife, Barb, perused the displays and posters of the Challenger astronauts Wednesday, refreshing their memories and soaking up history at the center while waiting for a flight back to California.
“We have a couple of hours to kill,” Yank Eppinger explained. “We didn’t even know it was here. The Hertz shuttle driver said if you have the time, it’s well worth checking out.”
The center has had a mission to educate rather than generate dollars. Regular admission is $3 for adults and $1 for children younger than 12. For groups — which have comprised a significant portion of the center’s visitors — the adult fee is $2. Fundraising efforts also have helped defray operating costs.
The center features numerous displays of space shuttle missions, lunar landers, videos from inside the International Space Station, gyroscopes, games and other offerings that teach the principles of space and physics. It is heavy with memorabilia from astronaut Onizuka’s life, and also displays a piece of moon rock and the space suit of Fred Haise, the lunar module pilot on Apollo 13.
The last two items are on loan from NASA and will have to be returned, Asbach said.
Ellison Onizuka, a graduate of Konawaena High School, was a mission specialist aboard the Challenger, and was the first Asian-American in space. A quote from his commencement speech in 1980 at that school has been printed on page 28 of U.S. 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.”
Jan. 28 marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger accident, the explosion that took the lives of its seven astronauts. On Jan. 31, the center will host one last visiting astronaut, Edward Fincke, who, until this past October, had the record for the American with the most time in space.
The visit will be the center’s last official function, Onizuka said.
“What Ellison had really wanted to do was share his knowledge and dreams,” Onizuka said. “I think the center has done that. But things change, and I think now the time has come for the center to close.”
Email Bret Yager at byager@westhawaiitoday.com.