Talk:Valentin Bondarenko

Inconsistencies
Seems to me that this article is full of Western style 'Red Scare' propaganda. If "On 17 June 1961 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR posthumously awarded Bondarenko the Order of the Red Star," how did they simultaneously keep his death a secret? The only references to this I can find follow the same pattern -- of secret soviet cover up attempts -- which simply don't add up. Anyone want to clear up this article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.23.10.172 (talk) 00:52, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Untitled
Shouldn't this be called a Ukrainian biographical stub, rather than Russian? Maybe a better description would be Soviet. I'd be hesitant to assign nationality to someone after they are dead. But if you do, go by birthplace. That makes him Ukrainian. Kevlar67 13:08, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Inconsistency in sources
The John Charles article states that burns covered 90 percent of Bondarenko's body. It also claims he was 23. However, the James Oberg source (which on its surface appears more believable, due to seemingly more plausible sources) correctly states that he was 24 (well, "correctly" assuming the date of his death is correct), and makes no claims about the coverage of the burns. Can we get another source to confirm the 90% figure, or failing that, go back to "most"? EAE (Holla!) 04:45, 28 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Given what you say about the source, I'd be ok with falling back to most for now. Gwen Gale (talk) 04:57, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Doesn't add up...
"Because of the pressure difference, it took a watching doctor nearly half an hour to open the chamber door."

"Bondarenko died of shock 16 hours after the mishap"

Can a human being really survive being on fire for half an hour?? And in a pure 100% oxygen environment? Most accounts I've read of people who were immolated indicate that they usually die much faster, at least within minutes, more from the inhalation of flame and super-heated toxic gases than the actual thermal body burns. And that is at normal nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and pressure. I strongly question that half-hour figure. StanislavJ (talk) 23:36, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

If he was just wearing a cotton flightsuit, it might well have burned in more of a flash-fire way. Not to be macabre, but often people who are "on fire" have been doused with some sort of accelerant, and that causes much deeper burning. I admit that I am no expert, but cotton burns pretty well in pure oxygen, and so it might have burned off him. 138.251.237.22 (talk) 22:27, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

more
There are a number of important details that should be clarified.

Bondarenko was in an altitude chamber, NOT a pressure chamber, and there is no evidence the atmosphere was 100% oxygen. I was told by a Russian flight surgeon that the Soviets were testing a 50% oxygen atmosphere they planned to use on a future space station, prabably at a pressure of about .5 atmospheres. However the chamber was operating at one atmosphere, so the oxygen partial pressure was abot 2.5 times normal.

This is important, because there was NO "flash fire", i.e. fire spreading rapidly throughout the chamber.. Had there been, he would have been asphyxiated, i.e. he would have died immediately due to lack of oxygen, rather than surviving the fire and dying about 16 hours later of shock secondary to the burns. What ocurred was that when the cotton ball (some accounts say a rag) caught fire, he tried to smother the flames, and his clothing (a contemporary picture suggests flight coveralls) ignited. The oxygen, having saturated the fabric, does act as an accelerant. However his body, though severely burned, was not "set on fire". I did not hear before whether his clothing was cotton or wool, but later cosmonaut flight suits were made of a wool/polyester blend, and were probably not fire retardant.

I have heard that Bondarenko's clothing ignited when he attempted to smother the flames of the burning cotton ball witht he sleeve of his coveralls, which would certainly have been safe in a normal atmosphere.

Following the incident, the Soviets always used an earth-normal atmosphere in their spacecraft, while the US continued using 100% oxygen until the end of the Apollo program, although the use of 100% oxygen was limited to low pressures after the Apollo fire. Although some documents ont he subject existed, I do not recall any public discussion of the hazards of high oxygen atmospheres prior to the Apolllo fire.

Dan Woodard, MD —Preceding unsigned comment added by Danwoodard (talk • contribs) 04:32, 26 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't think the article text ever said his body caught fire. The article does carry a citation showing that the hazards of high oxy environments were known and published before the Apollo fire. Your unsourced edit seems ok and verifiable to me, but hopefully a source for it can be had somewhere. Gwen Gale (talk) 11:43, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Was he really selected for Vostok 1?
Notice this sentence precedes the one about him singing and playing tennis well, which is cited to Burgess and Hall. Is this an attempt to slip something by, or do Burgess/Hall verify he was actually chosen for the first Vostok? JustinTime55 (talk) 20:00, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

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