U.S. Passports, and a Hawaiian Hero

I've been slowly working through the application process to the University of Swinburne, which necessitated renewing my passport as my old one expired two years ago. My new one came a two weeks ago, and the design has changed quite a bit; it now incorporates quotes from people or events in American history both famous (George Washington, the Declaration of Independence) and not-so-famous (“Except from the Thanksgiving Address, Mohawk version”). I was somewhat surprised to find a quote by Hawaiian astronaut Ellison Onizuka among them:

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.    —Ellison S. Onizuka

For those who don't know, Ellison Onizuka was an Hawaii-born astronaut who was on the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986 that exploded 73 seconds after launch on his second spaceflight. He was born in Kealakekua over on the Kona side, and was the first Asian American and first person of Japanese descent to reach space, logging a total of 74 hours of spaceflight on his first mission.

There are a number of places named in his memory here in Hawaii (and apparently elsewhere in the U.S., according to the article about him; perhaps he's more famous than I thought). The cluster of buildings mid-way up Mauna Kea known colloquially as Hale Pōhaku is officially the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy, and the visitor center where I worked in 2012 is officially the Ellison Onizuka Visitor Information Station. There's a metal plaque of his face by the entrance to the latter, though I don't appear to have a picture of it.

I don't really have anything more to say about it, other than that I thought it's cool he's being remembered in the current U.S. passport design.