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Valentin Bondarenko (Valentin Vasilyevich Bondarenko) was born on 16 February, 1937 in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, is a Soviet fighter pilot and cosmonaut candidate (1937–1961). Discover Valentin Bondarenko's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 24 years old?

Popular As Valentin Vasilyevich Bondarenko
Occupation Pilot
Age 24 years old
Zodiac Sign Aquarius
Born 16 February 1937
Birthday 16 February
Birthplace Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Date of death 1961
Died Place Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Nationality Russia

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 16 February. He is a member of famous fighter with the age 24 years old group.

Valentin Bondarenko Height, Weight & Measurements

At 24 years old, Valentin Bondarenko height not available right now. We will update Valentin Bondarenko's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
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Dating & Relationship status

He is currently single. He is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about He's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, He has no children.

Family
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Valentin Bondarenko Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Valentin Bondarenko worth at the age of 24 years old? Valentin Bondarenko’s income source is mostly from being a successful fighter. He is from Russia. We have estimated Valentin Bondarenko's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income fighter

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Timeline

1937

Valentin Vasilyevich Bondarenko (Валентин Васильевич Бондаренко; Валентин Васильович Бондаренко; 16 February 1937 – 23 March 1961) was a Soviet fighter pilot selected in 1960 for training as a cosmonaut.

He died as the result of burns sustained in a fire during a 15-day low-pressure endurance experiment in Moscow.

1954

After Bondarenko's graduation in 1954 he was admitted to the Voroshilovgrad Aviation Military Academy and a year later he was transferred to an Air Force College in Grozny, Armavir Military Pilot Aviation School, from which he graduated in 1957.

1956

In 1956 he married Galina Semenovna Rykova, a medical worker.

Their first child was born later that year.

During 1956, Bondarenko was sent to Armavir Higher Air Force Pilots School, graduating in 1957—the same year Sputnik 1 was launched.

Bondarenko was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, and served in the Soviet Air Force's PribVO (the former Baltic Military District).

1959

He was promoted to Senior Lieutenant in December 1959.

1960

On 28 April 1960, Bondarenko was chosen to be among the first group of 20 cosmonauts.

Bondarenko, "(also known as 'Valentin Junior' and 'Tinkerbell') was the youngest member of the cosmonaut team."

He began training on 31 May for a planned launch on the crewed Vostok spacecraft.

According to his fellow cosmonauts, Bondarenko was a mild-mannered person with a pleasant disposition.

He had a good singing voice and played table tennis well.

1961

23 March 1961 was the tenth day of a 15-day endurance experiment in a low pressure altitude chamber at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow.

The chamber's atmosphere was at least 50% oxygen.

Bondarenko, having completed work for the day, removed monitoring biosensors from his body and washed his skin with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball, which he then discarded.

The cotton ball landed on an electric hot plate which he was using to brew a cup of tea.

The cotton ignited and Bondarenko tried to smother the flames with the sleeve of his woolen coveralls, which caught fire in the chamber's oxygen-rich atmosphere.

Because of the pressure difference, it took an onlooking doctor nearly half an hour to open the chamber door.

Bondarenko's clothing burned until almost all the oxygen in the chamber was used up and he had suffered third-degree burns over most of his body.

On 17 June 1961 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet posthumously awarded Bondarenko the Order of the Red Star.

News of Bondarenko's accident and death was not published at the time.

Bondarenko had already appeared in group films and photos of the first cosmonaut group, and his unexplained disappearance sparked rumours of cosmonauts dying in failed launches.

James Oberg, in his book Red Star in Orbit, wrote how the Soviet government airbrushed out the cosmonaut's image from an official 1961 photograph of the first six cosmonauts selected for training, while British researcher Rex Hall showed that five people had been erased from an earlier group photograph of 16 cosmonauts.

Clumsy attempts were later made to further doctor the historic photographs, with the insertion of imaginative but nonexistent photo details to account for the absence of the original members of the group.

There are hardly any documents available depicting Bondarenko's life, an attempt from the Soviet Union to erase Bondarenko.

1980

The Soviet government concealed the death, along with Bondarenko's membership in the cosmonaut corps, until 1980.

A crater on the Moon's far side is named after him.

Bondarenko was born in Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.

His father was sent to the Eastern Front in the first days of World War II.

The youngster and his mother went through several years of hardship during the war.

His father volunteering to fight in the Soviet Army instilled the idea of military training into Bondarenko at a young age, leading to his later interest in the Air Force.

From an early age, Bondarenko was fascinated by aviation heroes and dreamed of becoming a military aviator himself.

While still at Kharkiv's Higher Air Force School, he was a member of the local aviation club.

In 1980 the details of this incident were at last published in the West, and in 1986 Izvestia published an article by science writer Yaroslav Golovanov, detailing the incident for Soviet readers.

1984

The attending physician at Botkin Hospital, surgeon and traumatologist Vladimir Golyakhovsky, recalled in 1984 that while attempting to start an intravenous drip, the only blood vessels he could find for inserting a needle were on the soles 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".

Bondarenko died of shock 16 hours after the accident, less than three weeks before Gagarin's first spaceflight aboard Vostok 1.

Manned orbital flight program director Nikolai Kamanin blamed Bondarenko's death on the Institute's poor organisation and control of the experiment.

Bondarenko was buried in Lipovaya Roshcha in Kharkiv, where his parents were then living.