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, 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. In December 1987, he occupied the third seat aboard the spacecraft Soyuz TM-4 to the

space station A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...

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. In the year following his spaceflight, Anatoly Levchenko died of a brain tumor, in the Nikolay Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute in Moscow. He was married with one child.

Awards

He was awarded the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR and the Order of Lenin.

Commemoration

Anatoly Levchenko CP in Zhukovsky, Russia

* Anatoly Levchenko is buried at th
Bykovskoye Memorial Cemetery
in Zhukovsky. * There is a memorial plate with his image installed on the wall of house 2 at Chkalova Street where Anatoly once lived in Zhukovsky.

References

1941 births 1988 deaths People from Kharkiv Oblast Heroes of the Soviet Union Soviet Air Force officers Soviet cosmonauts Buran program Soviet test pilots Gromov Flight Research Institute employees Mir crew members {{hero-USSR-stub

Awards

Commemoration

See also

References