Valentin Bondarenko

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Valentin Vasiliyevich Bondarenko (February 16, 1937 in Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR - March 23, 1961 in Moscow, USSR ) was a Soviet cosmonaut of Ukrainian descent.

Bondarenko was a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force when he was selected for cosmonaut training on April 4, 1960. He was married and had one child.

On March 23, 1961 Bondarenko was working in a training simulator pressurized with pure oxygen. After removing some biosensors from his body Bondarenko washed his skin with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball which he carelessly threw away. The cotton ball landed on an electric hot plate which started a flash fire in the oxygen-rich atmosphere and ignited Bondarenko's suit.

A watching doctor tried to open the chamber door but this took several minutes because of the pressure difference and Bondarenko suffered third-degree burns over most of his body. In 1984 the attending hospital physician Vladimir Golyakhovsky said that while attempting to start an intravenous drip he was only able to find an insertion point on the sole of one of Bondarenko's feet, where his flight boots had warded off the flames. According to Golyakhovsky, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin spent several hours at the hospital as "deathwatch officer" and Bondarenko died of shock eight hours after the mishap.[1]

Bondarenko crater on the far side of the Moon is named after Valentin Vasiliyevich.

[edit] Rumours and speculation

News of the accident was not published. Bondarenko had already appeared in group films and photos of the first cosmonaut group and his disappearance sparked rumours of cosmonauts dying in failed launches. The incident was revealed over twenty years later.

The circumstances of Bondarenko's death were similar to those befalling the crew of the Apollo 1. There was some later speculation that if the Soviets had been open about the tragedy NASA may have been alerted to the hazardous design of the early Apollo command module and made changes which could have prevented the deaths of the three Apollo 1 crewmembers in 1967.[2] However, by then the lethal hazards of a 100% oxygen environment had been thoroughly described in American scientific publications.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Oberg, James, Uncovering Soviet Disasters, Chapter 10: Dead Cosmonauts, pp 156-176, Random house, New York, 1988, retrieved 8 January 2008
  2. ^ Charles, John, Could the CIA have prevented the Apollo 1 fire?, the Space Review, 29 January 2007, retrieved 5 January 2008
  3. ^ NASA History, SP-4204, Predictions of Trouble

[edit] External links

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