The Conversation, an independent and not-for-profit publisher of news, commentary and analysis, is marking the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing with a new global podcast series titled “To the moon and beyond.” In the first episode, Bonnie J. Dunbar, a retired NASA astronaut and UH Cullen College of Engineering alumna, shared her memories of the first lunar landing and what it’s like being in space.
At that time, Dunbar was attending the University of Washington and travelled 30 miles with college friends to watch the Apollo 11 landing on television.
Dunbar, who earned her Ph.D. in mechanical and biomedical engineering from the Cullen College, went on to establish 27-year-long career at NASA. She served as shuttle mission specialist and payload commander for five space flights between 1985 and 1998, soaring into space on the Challenger, the Columbia, the Atlantis and the Endeavor.