NASA Astronaut, Assistant Director of University Research and Affairs
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
(profile at the time of induction in 2000)
NASA astronaut Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar has spent a total of 50 days working inside space shuttles and space stations, extending our understanding of physics, chemistry, biology engineering and human physiology in a microgravity or weightless environment. Her earlier work in ceramics as a senior research engineer at Rockwell International Space Division played a key role in the development of the shuttles' heat shield. Without the ceramic tiles that make up the heat shield, the shuttle could never reenter Earth's atmosphere.
Dr. Dunbar has long been a pioneer in science and for women. When she enrolled as an engineering student at the University of Washington, only nine women were in her entire freshman class. When she joined the Astronaut Corps in 1980, she was in only the second class at NASA to accept women.
Her career has touched on a series of high points in the history of space travel. In 1979, she worked as a guidance and navigation officer and flight controller for the Skylab reentry mission. In her first space flight, on the Challenger in 1985, Dr. Dunbar became the first woman assigned to a laboratory mission to operate the Spacelab, its subsystems and experiments. In 1995, Dunbar flew in the first shuttle mission to dock with the Russian Space Station Mir, and in 1998, she flew in the last mission to deliver a U.S. astronaut to Mir. She has been payload commander on shuttle missions twice. In 1987, she headed a task force that changed the direction of U.S. space research to increase laboratory flight experience.
While in space, she has conducted or supervised experiments ranging from protein crystal growth and surface tension physics to tests on muscle performance, bones, the immune system and the cardio-pulmonary system.
Dr. Dunbar has a doctorate in mechanical/biomedical engineering from the University of Houston, where she is also an adjunct professor in mechanical engineering. She has been an inspiration to many young women and has worked with groups like the National Science Foundation Engineering Advisory Committee and the Society of Women Engineers to share her vision of what women can achieve.
