Bondar, Roberta (1945–)
Bondar, Roberta (1945–)
Canadian astronaut. Born Roberta Lynn Bondar, Dec 4, 1945, at Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada; dau. of Edward and Mildred Bondar; University of Guelph, BS, 1968; University of Western Ontario, MS, 1971; University of Toronto, PhD, 1974; McMaster University, MD, 1977.
The 1st Canadian woman astronaut, trained as a neurologist, serving as director of the Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at McMaster University and researching aspects of aerospace medicine; began training with the Canadian Space Agency (1984) and was named chair of Canada's life sciences subcommittee for the space station; as a payload specialist on the Internal Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) Spacelab mission (Dec 1990), studied microgravity's effects on material processing and living organisms; was the mission's principal investigator for 55 experiments, including studies of taste in space and cerebral blood flow velocity during weightlessness; resigned from astronaut corps (1984) and returned to University of Ottawa to teach.
See also memoir, On the Shuttle: Eight Days in Space (1993); and Women in World History.