Roberta Bondar

Early life and education

Roberta Bondar was born on December 4, 1945, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, as the second daughter of Mildred and Edward Bondar, whose background was Ukrainian. Her father managed the city’s Public Utilities Commission, and her mother taught business and commerce. Both parents pushed their children to excel in school and extracurriculars. Bondar’s interest in science started young; at age seven, her father set up a basement lab for her experiments.

She won first place in grade school for a talk on waterpower. Spaceflight captivated her—she built model rockets, and an aunt employed at Cape Canaveral sent her U.S. space program posters and crests. In grade school, she was passed over for a boy who scored lower on a qualifying exam, which fueled her determination to prove herself academically. She later said she wanted to be so qualified that if someone rejected her, they’d have to admit it was because she was a woman.

She attended Sir James Dunn Collegiate and Vocational School in Sault Ste. Marie, graduating in 1964. A science project on forest tent caterpillar biology won a local Rotary science fair and advanced to the 1963 Canada-wide science fair in Toronto, also landing her a summer job studying spruce budworm at what is now the federal Great Lakes Forestry Centre. In high school, she was a strong athlete, captaining the basketball team and being named sportswoman of the year in 1963.

At graduation, she received the athletic leadership trophy and a scholarship. Bondar pursued extensive university studies: a Bachelor of Science in zoology and agriculture from the University of Guelph (1968), a Master of Science in experimental pathology from the University of Western Ontario (1971), a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Toronto’s Erindale College (1974), and a Doctor of Medicine from McMaster University (1977). Her undergraduate research included work with the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Forestry.

Career

As one of the first six members of the Canadian Astronaut Corps selected in 1983, Bondar began astronaut training in 1984, and in 1992 she was designated Payload Specialist for the first International Microgravity Laboratory Mission (IML-1). Bondar flew on the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery during Mission STS-42, January 22–30, 1992, during which she performed over 40 experiments in the Spacelab. Her work studying the effects of low-gravity situations on the human body allowed NASA to prepare astronauts for long stays in the space station.

After her astronaut career, Bondar led an international team of researchers at NASA for more than a decade, examining data obtained from astronauts on space missions to better understand the mechanisms underlying the body's ability to recover from exposure to space. Bondar's research in space recovery considered the linkage to Parkinson's disease in addition to other neurological effects. Bondar pursued her interests in photography with an emphasis on natural environments; she was an Honors student in Professional Nature Photography at the Brooks Institute of Photography, Santa Barbara, California.

She is the author of four photo essay books that feature her photography of the Earth. These published books include Landscape of Dreams, Passionate Vision: Discovering Canada's National Parks, The Arid Edge of Earth, and Touching the Earth. Bondar was also a sky diver, underwater diver and pilot. Bondar has also been a consultant and speaker to diverse organizations, drawing on her expertise as an astronaut, physician, scientific researcher, photographer, author, environment interpreter, and team leader.

Not only can interviews from radio and TV be found of Bondar, but she also played a role in the movie Destiny in Space. In 2009, Bondar registered The Roberta Bondar Foundation as a not-for-profit charity. The foundation focuses on environmental awareness.

Honours, awards, and tributes

Bondar is the recipient of multiple honours and awards from organizations and universities across Canada. These honours include the Vanier Award in 1985 and the F.W. (Casey) Baldwin Award in 1985. Bondar was the first astronaut to receive a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. It was inducted on October 1, 2011, at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto.

The Roberta Bondar Park and Tent Pavilion is located in Bondar's home town (Sault Ste. Marie) in honour of the first female astronaut. Bondar also has multiple public schools named after her. Bondar served two terms as the Chancellor of Trent University, from 2003 to 2009. In 2009, Concordia University awarded Bondar the prestigious Loyola Medal.

In 2017, the Royal Canadian Mint released a limited edition 25th anniversary $25 coin entitled 'A View of Canada from Space'. The unveiling of this honour was done in her hometown of Sault Ste. Marie at Sault College on November 1, 2016. In 2018, Thebacha and Wood Buffalo Astronomical Society renamed its observatory to The Dr. Roberta Bondar Northern Observatory.