Canada's 1st female astronaut reflects on growing up in northern Ontario
CBC
It was 30 years ago this weekend that Canada's first female astronaut went to space.
The Space Shuttle Discovery blasted into space on Jan. 22, 1992, and on it was Roberta Bondar from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.
Bondar now now lives in Toronto, but said her childhood in northeastern Ontario impacted her life greatly.
Speaking with CBC's Morning North program, Bondar said many teachers in Sault Ste. Marie helped get her on her path, including her Grade 7 science teacher, Mr. Brown.
"He was a real favourite," she said.
From John Flemming who taught her math and made ""made trigonometry come alive" for her in Grade 10, to her homeroom teacher, Don Walimaki, Bondar said she had educators who taught her things that still "stick with" her today.
She also recalled her physics teacher, a woman named Helen Harshaw, as well as Audrey Bayles, her physical education teacher.
Bondar's family home in Sault Ste. Marie has long been sold, but before it was, she made sure to take a piece to remember it. At her current home, she has a centre floor tile from that childhood home, framed and hanging on the wall.
"It is a quarter moon with a star," she said.
"Now, it's really not scientific because the star is the place where the light from the sun would come from the planet."
Bondar is no stranger to receiving awards for her work, but she said some given to her while living in her hometown of Sault Ste. Marie still stand out.
"As a personal thing, I think the Order of Canada and the leadership and sportsman awards that I had in high school have to remain some of my most cherished," she said.
Reflecting back on her mission 30 years ago, she wondered what had changed in that time to allow more people to get into her field.
"Certainly in Canada we have had more calls for astronauts, specifically, but having said that, there's not that many of us," she said.
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