Ellison Onizuka was one of the seven NASA astronauts who died in the 1986 space shuttle explosion. His daughter's high school soccer team gave him a signed soccer ball to take on the mission.

Three decades after Challenger, a soccer ball finally reaches space As ever, the world spins, time passes, and things come back around. Eric Berger – Feb 7, 2017 9:00 am | 113 ...

HOUSTON — A soccer ball that was on the ill-fated launch of the space shuttle Challenger has made it to orbit 30 years later, thanks to a shared connection between one of the fallen astronauts ...