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DR. ROBERTA BONDAR TO BECOME CANADA'S FIRST LADY OF SPACE
space woman touches down in

SHE ANSWERED an advertisement placed in newspapers
nationwide over four years ago. In the process Dr. Roberta
Bondar fulfilled a childhood fantasy and secured a place in
Canadian history as the country’s first lady of space.

Bondar, 42, landed on the North
Shore recently, addressing a group
of students at West Vancouver
Secondary School.

Bondar, who is a neurologist, is
one of six astronauts training in
the Canadian Astronaut Program.

CANADIAN ASTRONAUT Dr. Roberta Bondar recently brought space down to Earth for a gathered group of
students at West Vancouver Secondary School. Bondar is one of six Canadian astronauts currently training to

MICHAEL B

News Reporter

The program is the country’s
conduit to feed the NASA space
shuttle schedule and the NASA

participate in the NASA space program.

space station project with Canuck
expertise.

Approximately 4,300 Canadians
applied to participate initially. Ten
per cent were women. The six
astronauts finally chosen began
training mid-February 1984.

Bondar said two flight appoint-
ments for the shuitle program were
given to the country for the
Canadarm contribution. The first
shuttle flight following the
Challenger tragedy is set for 1988.

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

The Canadian astronauts chower,
for the flights are to contribute to
the program with work on a space
vision system for the Canadarm as
well as research experiments into
life science applications addressing
the peculiar medical problems fac-
ed by mankind in space.

Bondar is training for a shuttle
position’as a,Life Science Payload

‘Specialist. She is one of three Ca-

nadians ‘competing for a_ single
spot on a shuttle flight booked for
1991.’

Bondar said gender will have no
bearing on her chances for winning
the shuttle spot. “Space is the
great leveller, You don’t lift
weights and you can’t wear
skirts."

But Bondar points vut: **We do
have to look at dealing with poten-
dal problems that may arise when
you're dealing with a mixed gender
group of professionals trving to do
their jobs in very close spaces with
lots of pressures and stresses.”’

Whatever the gender, the suc-
cessful candidate will be conduc-
ting research into medical areas of
concern affecting everyone spen-
ding time in space.

Problem areas to be addressed
include motion sickness; radiation
shielding, which Bondar says is an
important concern for longer stays
in space; loss of position sense in a
weightless environment; and loss
of matrix and calcium in the
bones. Said Bondar: ‘‘Some of this

may lead to permanent bone loss.
We see the same problem right
here on earth in paraplegics and
post-menopausal women.”’

A trip into space is something
Bondar has been toying with since
she was a child.

“This is something I've wanted
to do since | was young, when |
used to put together plastic
rockets. To be able to be involved
like this as a part of Canadian his-
tory is not something that can

appen every day,”’ she said.

But for no. .ondar, bound by
earth, must contend with the rigors
of astronaut tcaining in Ouuwa,
Toronto, Montreal and Housten.

Bondar and company immerse
themselves in jet training,
parachuting courses, astronomy,
geology and physical workout.

“Most of the mission-specific
training takes place in the United
States in Houston,”’ said Bondar.

To experience weightlessness,
the astronauts fly the not-so-
friendly skies in what Bondar calls
“The Vomit Comet.” The plane, a
KC-135 aircraft similar to a Boeing
707 with reinforced wings, takes
the astronauts on an airborne
rollercoaster ride.

‘You get 20 seconds of
weightlessness at a time. We go
through 40 times of 20-second
weightlessness,’’ she said.

Meanwhile back on the ground,

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