In Little Tokyo, a restored shuttle model returns

Quite a few of those who gathered Thursday along the angled Little Tokyo block named for the first Japanese American astronaut said it was the closest they would ever get to a space shuttle launch.

They had come to see a newly restored one-tenth-scale model of the Challenger space shuttle be hoisted atop the memorial to Ellison S. Onizuka, one of the seven astronauts who died when the shuttle exploded on Jan. 28, 1986.

At 1 p.m., when the big moment was scheduled, people clutching cameras positioned themselves, lining the balcony of the Weller Court shopping center on one side of the monument as well as the roof and each level of the parking garage on the other side.

The time came and went, and some noted wryly that the day now had the authentic feel of Cape Canaveral.

The weather, though meltingly hot, was not a factor. But there were a few hitches in the model’s return from its four-month overhaul at the Scale Model Co., where it was built in 1990.

The main one was that the crane didn’t arrive with the right cords to lift the model safely, said model-maker Isao Hirai, president of the Hawthorne company. Someone had to bring them — from Long Beach.

The Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial Committee commissioned the model and is raising the $70,000 or so to cover its restoration. As he watched and waited, treasurer Herb Omura said that he’d known Onizuka — “such a nice person, down-to-earth, a beer man.”

Just after 3 p.m., the model, safely harnessed, began to hover and then slowly lift up to about a 45-degree angle. Soon it was pointing straight up, over the steel supports to hold it in place.

As it was gently lowered, everyone clapped and cheered, including Hirai, whose T-shirt listed every shuttle launch, as a rock band’s might list tour dates.

“There it goes. Ooh,” said Masayo Nishiwaka, 82, of Pasadena. “It’s wonderful, a really proud occasion, isn’t it?”

When it was all over, news crews flocked Hirai, who said of his sudden fame: “I’m not used to this.”

Some spectators said they had come as much to see the model-maker as the model. “You’ve got to give this guy a lot of credit,” said Alberto Hinojos, 58, a retired bus driver who made the trip from Covina. “ He’s allowing Angelenos to enjoy an era of space history that has come to an end.”

nita.lelyveld@latimes.com