Perhaps Robbie Burns or Donald Trump stole Roberta Bondar’s thunder on Sunday. But it deserves a mention. The legendary astronaut has an important Guelph connection.
Sunday was the 25th anniversary of Bondar’s great space adventure. As Canada’s first female astronaut, she blasted into space on the Discovery mission, STS-42, back on Jan. 22, 1992. She was the first neurologist in space.
Bondar, who was born in Sault Ste. Marie - where she has a park, pavilion, and marina named after her – spent her undergraduate years on the University of Guelph campus. A crucial step in her educational journey began here.
Bondar, born in 1945, studied at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph in the late 1960s, graduating with a B.Sc. degree in zoology and agriculture in 1968.
That period in history was a hot one for space travel, with seminal launches happening throughout the 60s and early 70s. Bondar was once quoted as saying she never watched a NASA launch without wanting to be onboard.
In 1992, she fulfilled that dream and vision on the Space Shuttle Discovery. The main purpose of the mission was to study the effects of microgravity on various organisms, a focus of Bondar’s research. She and the crew spent eight days in space.
Bondar was a very active student at U of G. She was a member of the university’s archery team, and on the women’s basketball team. She also coached in those areas of athletics.
She went on from Guelph to pursue a Master of Science degree in pathology, a PhD in Neurobiology, and earned a medical degree. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 1981.
Bondar spent 10 years at NASA, where she lead an international research team. She examined illnesses like stroke and Parkinson’s by studying the neurological effects of space travel on astronauts.
Bondar founded the The Roberta Bondar Foundation in 2009, which fosters respect for the natural environment. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, among a great many other honours.
She holds honorary degrees from a host of universities, including U of G. Ontario schools in Ajax, Vaughn, Ottawa and Brampton are named after her, as is one in Abbotsford, BC.
