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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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