Roberta Bondar reflects on space flight, nature and the cake she almost didn't have

Dr. Roberta Bondar, Canada's first female astronaut, sits in front of a computer screen with the delicate curvature of Earth hanging in the blackness of space as her background.

It's not a photo she took, but it's a view she remembers well.

"I'd been working so hard for a couple of days," she recalled of her flight on board the space shuttle Discovery in 1992, 30 years ago this week. 

"And [Commander Ronald Grabe] just said, 'Roberta, I'm not gonna let this flight go by with you working as hard as you are without looking out the window.' And so he had me come up to the flight deck."

Down below was the Pacific Ocean, its vastness punctuated by the small islands of Hawaii.

"I must say that it was spectacular."

Bondar, who was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is reflecting not only on the 30th anniversary of her space flight, but also her time back on Earth working as a nature photographer, something she is passionate about.

She launched aboard Discovery on January 22, 1992.

The tragedy of the 1986 Challenger explosion was still fresh in the public's mind. Even the redesigned spacesuits that came out of the disaster — now a bright orange rather than pale blue — served as a reminder. 

While the danger of space flight is something all astronauts are acutely aware of, it wasn't front of mind for Bondar as she prepared for her launch 30 years ago.

"It was eight o'clock at night, and they wanted us to sign this plethora of photographs, which I thought, 'Why would I do that now? I'll do it when I come back.' And they're going…" she paused and tilted her head and raised her eyebrows.

"So I was supposed to be asleep in my little room, but I was actually dictating a tape to my mother. And that, that sobered me up quite a bit." 

She hadn't even prepared a will, something she did last minute.

Walking out to the van that would take the astronauts to launch pad 39A at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, where Discovery was waiting, Bondar remembers looking at the crowd of people who had gathered at who were waving and cheering on the crew of seven. She had been isolated, in quarantine ahead of her flight, and didn't recognize anyone. But then a voice called out from the crowd.