Anatoly Levchenko

Not to be confused with Anatoly Nikolayevich Levchenko.
Anatoly Semyonovich Levchenko
Levchenko in 1987
Born(1941-05-05)May 5, 1941
Krasnokutsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Died6 August 1988(1988-08-06) (aged 47)
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
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.