Anatoly Levchenko

Anatoly Semyonovich Levchenko
Levchenko in 1987
Born(1941-05-05)May 5, 1941
Died6 August 1988(1988-08-06) (aged 47)
NationalitySoviet
OccupationTest Pilot
AwardsHero of the Soviet Union
Space career
Cosmonaut
RankCaptain, Soviet Air Force
Time in space
7d 21h 58m
Selection1988 Cosmonaut Group
MissionsMir LII-1 (Soyuz TM-4 / Soyuz TM-3)

Anatoly Semyonovich Levchenko (Russian: Анатолий Семёнович Левченко; May 5, 1941 – August 6, 1988) was a Soviet cosmonaut in the Buran programme.

Trained as a test pilot and selected as a cosmonaut on 12 July 1980,[1] Levchenko was planned to be the back-up commander of the first Buran space shuttle flight. As part of his preparations, he also accomplished test-flights with Buran's counterpart OK-GLI aircraft.

In March 1987, Levchenko began extensive training for a Soyuz spaceflight, intended to give him some experience in space.[2] In December 1987, he occupied the third seat aboard the spacecraft Soyuz TM-4 to the space station Mir, and returned to Earth about a week later on Soyuz TM-3. His mission is sometimes called Mir LII-1, after the Gromov Flight Research Institute shorthand.[3]

In the year following his spaceflight, Anatoly Levchenko died of a brain tumor, in the Nikolay Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute in Moscow.[4]

He was married with one child.[1]

  1. ^ a b "Cosmonaut Biography: Anatoli Levchenko". spacefacts.de. Archived from the original on 21 December 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  2. ^ Hendrickx, Bart; Bert Vis (2007-10-04). Energiya-Buran : The Soviet Space Shuttle. Praxis. p. 526. ISBN 978-0-387-69848-9.
  3. ^ "Mir LII-1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 30 November 2010. Retrieved 15 November 2010.
  4. ^ "Levchenko". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 20 October 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2010.