Roberta Lynn Bondar

Roberta Bondar (drawing by Adianna)

The reason why I chose to do Roberta Bondar is because I thought it would be fun and interesting to write about her. The book that i got is a biography. The book has 112 pages in total but only 103 to actually read. Roberta has a sister named Barbara who is 2 years older than Roberta. Her mother and father (Edward and Mildred Bondar) would usually buy Barbara and Roberta double bubble packages with astronaut helmets in them. Although they were disappointed because they came in flat, brown packages, they still knew there were helmets in them. The helmets would be big, square cardboard helmets that would sit on their shoulders. Roberta dreamed of being an astronaut. She says she would have never expected to actually become an astronaut. When Roberta was five years old, she knew she wanted to be an astronaut. Her mom would always watch SCI-FI movies with her on Friday nights.

Roberta was born on December 2, 1945. She lived in Sault Ste Marie, Canada for most of her life. She mostly went to a lot of university. Her education is: University of Western Ontario, University of Guelph, University of Toronto, University of Toronto Mississauga and McMaster University. Bondar enjoyed playing "astronauts" with her sister Barbara. They would use red and green water guns, but pretend they were the flashguns that Flash Gordon used. Her mom always told her to dream on and to never give up on her dream to be an astronaut. When she was younger she would always pretend to be an astronaut which influenced her even more. Most people don't know that her last name is pronounced the same as "ponder". She was born in Ontario. She does not have a husband.

Roberta has had to face many challenges in her astronaut career.At one point in her career, she had to go on a motion sickness machine.This was hard for her because it does make you feel really sick but she had to deal with it.She went on an airplane so that would also help her get used to less gravity. Another challenge was eating. It was hard for her at first, but she eventually figured out how. She seen the other crew putting their food on the spoons. She thought she could do it and she did, so she entertained herself with sticking the food on the spoon (since the food would act like a magnet, they would stick to the utensils). Bondar would do this every meal because it was an excuse to play with her food.

One thing that surprised me about Roberta Bondar is that she has a fun and silly side to her. At first i thought she would be strict and very straight forward.If i ever met her, the three questions i would ask her would be: What is it like in space? Why was it your dream to be an astronaut? Were you scared to go to space? I would absolutely love, love to be Roberta's daughter because me and my sister would like to know more about space. My opinion of the book i chose is it is a bit short. What i was expecting was 200+ pages, that's a good size book for my grade. I also learned some things from the book: She has wanted to be an astronaut since she was 5 yrs. old, She would always play "Aliens vs. Astronauts" with her sister Barbara. One thing that i can apply to my life is that i also have a sister that is 2 years older than me. I have a twin sister that i am older than and she wants to be an astronaut and i don't (Roberta's sister Barbara never wanted to be an astronaut).

BY: Adianna Ranger I hope you enjoyed reading my paragraphs!!