As we post this, astronauts are hurtling back to Earth in Artemis II after a flyby of the Moon. Meanwhile, astronaut Mike Fincke is poised to speak at Hawaii Betsuin this Sunday, April 12, for our 9:30 a.m. service. You are invited to attend in person (parking entrance at 1742 Lusitana St.) or on Zoom.

Col. E. Michael Fincke will be on Oahu for the 10^th Annual Onizuka Day of Exploration, to be hosted April 11 at UH West Oahu by the Aloha Council of Scouts BSA. He has previously spoken more than once at UH Hilo’s annual Astronaut Ellison Onizuka Science Day, a tradition launched in 2001. After a Covid-era hiatus, the Hilo event relaunched in 2026 to mark the 40^th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Among those lost in the Challenger disaster was Hawaii astronaut and Kona Hongwanji member Ellison Onizuka. Ellison’s brother, Claude Onizuka, has since served as a liaison between the various Onizuka Day organizers and NASA astronauts.

While Kona Hongwanji is the Onizukas’ home temple, Hawaii Betsuin also has multiple connections to the Onizukas and NASA:

• Hawaii Betsuin member and former rimban, Rev. Tatsuo Muneto, was the resident minister at Kona Hongwanji when the Challenger was lost. He knew Onizuka family members well and performed the memorial service for Ellison. According to a Feb. 17, 1986, article in the Star-Advertiser, 1500 people attended, including more than 200 family members and 75 NASA and Air Force personnel.
• Hawaii Betsuin members Art and Rene Kimura, after retiring as award-winning teachers, spent 21 years with the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, an educational program chartered under NASA. One of their young students went on to be a guidance and control engineer for NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars. Another was instrumental in relaunching UH Hilo’s Onizuka Day of Exploration. And — did you know? In 1986, before retiring from teaching, Art was one of two Hawaii finalists in the selection pool for the teacher-astronaut to fly on the Challenger mission. In the end, Christa McAuliffe was selected.
• Finally, Ellison and Claude Onizuka’s nephew, Deron Matsuoka, has two children that went through scouting programs at Hawaii Betsuin. It was Deron who floated the idea of astronaut Mike Fincke doing a Hongwanji visit on Oahu on Sunday, April 12. Rev. Blayne Higa in Kona and Hawaii Betsuin’s Ralston Nagata (cousin to Ellison and Claude) conveyed the idea to Rimban Yuika Hasebe, and it was agreed that Col. Fincke would be guest speaker for our April 12 service.

So, there you have it: Two days after a scheduled splashdown by Artemis II, an astronaut who has logged nine space walks, and who has 549 days of experience in space with both Americans and colleagues from other countries, will be the guest speaker at Hawaii Betsuin. Given that we provide both an in-person and a Zoom option for attending, we are on solid ground to say, “Don’t miss it!”

– David Atcheson