Valentin Bondarenko, cosmonaut, born 1937

Valentin Bondarenko, born February 16, 1937 in Ukraine, was an ill-fated cosmonaut in the early years of the Soviet space program.  He attended an Air Force college and became a pilot, rising to the rank of Senior Lieutenant in 1959.

The next year, he was selected as a cosmonaut in 1960.  On March 23, 1961, Day 10 of a 15-day endurance test, Bondarenko was in a low pressure altitude chamber with an atmosphere of at least 50% oxygen.  He removed some monitoring biosensors attached to his body, and washed off his skin with a cotton ball that had been soaked in alcohol.  He threw the cotton ball away but it landed on a hot plate, which he was using to brew tea.  The cotton ignited.  Bondarenko tried to smother the flames but the sleeves of his coveralls were wool, and also caught fire in the oxygen-rich atmosphere.

It took the monitoring doctor almost half an hour to open the chamber because of the pressure difference.  By that time, Bondarenko's clothing had burned until all the oxygen had been depleted and he had suffered third-degree burns over most of his body, only the soles of his feet were spared, since his boots had protected them from the flames. 

Yuri Gagarin served as a 'deathwatch officer' for several hours until Bondarenko died of shock 16 hours after the accident.  Less than three weeks later, Gagarin made his his historic Vostok 1 flight.

The news and circumstances of Bondarenko's death were not released at the time and the Soviets even went so far as to air-brush him out of pictures, since he had already appeared in group photos and films.  Details of his death were finally made public about 1980.

There has been speculation that if the Soviets had released information surrounding Bondarenko's death in an oxygen-rich atmosphere, the same fate would not have happened to the Apollo 1 crew.  However, NASA was fully aware of the dangers of 100% oxygen atmospheres by 1966.

So if NASA knew about the dangers, why did they not do something to prevent it?  Did they gamble with the astronauts' lives?  Did they feel it wasn't necessary to change the atmosphere, because they thought something like that would never happen?

What do you think?

As with Chaffee, Apollo 1 astronaut whose birthday we celebrated yesterday, a crater on the far side of the moon has been named for Bondarenko.

Konstantin Feoktistov, Voskhod 1 cosmonaut, born 1926

Konstantin Feoktistov, born February 7, 1926 in the former Soviet Union, made one trip into space aboard Voskhod 1 in October 1964.  He was an engineer working on an ion-propelled  spacecraft that could carry people to Mars, when he was selected for cosmonaut training in 1964 and put into space later that same year.

Voskhod 1 was the first multi-passenger mission with a crew of three.  It was the first time cosmonauts did not wear spacesuits, because they wanted to keep ahead of the Americans by putting more people into space at once. 

Feoktistov's fellow cosmonauts were Vladimir Komarov and Boris Yegorov.  Feoktistov ceased training for future missions due to medical reasons.

He passed away in November 2009 in Moscow.

Happy birthday, cosmonaut Boris Volynov!

Boris Valentinovich Volynov, born December 18, 1934 in the former Soviet Union, is a veteran of the Voskhod program and went into space twice aboard Soyuz vessels.

He was first assigned as a possible commander for Voskhod 1 in 1964, but he and two others were bumped three days before the scheduled launch.  He trained a year training for Voskhod 3, but the flight was cancelled just 10 days before launch and he was transferred to the Soyuz group.

Volynov made it into space January 1965 aboard Soyuz 5 and transferred his two crewmen, Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov to Soyuz 4 via EVA.  Volynov returned to Earth as a solo re-entry but things did not go as planned.  Soyuz 5's equipment module failed to separate properly and blocked the re-entry heat shielf on the base of the descent module.  Volynov lost control of Soyuz 5, which began tumbling.  The heat of the re-entry finally burned off the equipment module and the descent module oriented itself properly.  The parachutes deployed but only partially and the retro-rockets for a soft landing failed to fire.  Volynov hit the ground so hard it broke several of his teeth. 

It wasn't over. 

Volynov landed far from his planned landing spot.  He landed in the Ural Mountains where it was -36 °F and rescuers would not reach him for many hours.  He abandoned the capsule and walked several kilometers to find shelter at a local peasant's house.

That didn't discourage him from going into space again.  His second and final mission was aboard Soyuz 21 to Salyut 5 in July - August 1976.  This landing had problems as well, but nearly as bad as his first.  As Volynov tried to undock from the space station, the latch failed to release properly.  The spacecraft moved out of range and only the first set of emergency procedures were receieved.  It did not work.  After another orbit, they received their final emergency procedures and the latches disengaged.  Soyuz 21 was now outside the normal recovery window and encoutered strongs winds as it descended.  This caused the retrorockets fire unevenly and they had a hard landing about midnight.

Volynov has not returned to space.

Boris Yegorov, Voskhod 1 cosmonaut, born 1937

Boris Borisovich Yegorov, born November 26, 1937 in Moscow, flew on Voskhod 1, his only spaceflight. He earned a doctorate in medicine, specializing in disorders of the sense of balance.  When he was chosen to fly aboard Voskhod 1, he became the first physician in space.  His fellow cosmonauts were Vladimir Komarov and Konstantin Feoktistov.

Yegorov passed away from a heart attack in 1994.

Voskhod 1 (USSR) launched 1964 - Safety, Schmafety!

Crew of Voskhod 1

October 12, 1964, the Soviets, in an all-out panic because the U.S. was about to launch their Gemini program, rushed three men into space.  Aboard the Voskhod 1 were Commander Vladimir Komarov, Engineer Konstantin Feoktistov and Medical Doctor Boris Yegorov.  It was the first space flight with more than one crewman and the first without space suits!

The trio was chosen mainly for political reasons and were given only 3 to 4 months of training.  The space capsule could hold two cosmonauts in space suits or three without.  Guess which one the Soviets opted for?  In order to stay ahead of the Americans, three cosmonauts were crammed into spacecraft sans space suits.  They also had to diet so they could all fit.

Despite the circus of getting Voskhod 1 off the launch pad, the missions was a success, lasting just over 1 day.