Valentin Bondarenko
Valentin Vasiliyevich Bondarenko was born February 16, 1937 in Kharkov, Ukraine SSR. He rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force, and was selected for cosmonaut training April 4, 1960. On March 23, 1961 he was killed during a fire in a pressurized chamber. He was married and had one child.
The accident that killed Valentin Bondarenko was caused by a flash fire in a training simulator that had been pressurized with pure oxygen. This is similar to the accident that befell the crew of the Apollo 1. However the accident was only revealed to the outside world in the 1980s.
The Bondarenko crater on the far side of the Moon is named for him.
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Categories: 1937 births | 1961 deaths | Astronauts | People stubs