Anatoly Semyonovich Levchenko (russian: Анатолий Семёнович Левченко; May 5, 1941 – August 6, 1988) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

in the

Buran programme The ''Buran'' program (russian: Буран, , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as the "VKK Space Orbiter program" (russian: ВКК «Воздушно-Космический Корабль», lit=Air and Space Ship), was a Soviet and later R ...

. 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 The OK-GLI (russian: Орбитальный корабль для горизонтальных лётных испытаний, ОК-ГЛИ, translit=Orbital'nyy korabl' dlya gorizontal'nykh lotnykh ispytaniy, lit=Orbital ship for horizontal fli ...

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 Soyuz TM-4 was a crewed Soyuz spaceflight to Mir. It was launched on 21 December 1987, and carried the first two crew members of the third long duration expedition, Mir EO-3. These crew members, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov, would stay in spa ...

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 ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

, and returned to Earth about a week later on

Soyuz TM-3 Soyuz TM-3 was the third crewed spaceflight to visit the Soviet space station Mir, following Soyuz T-15 and Soyuz TM-2. It was launched in July 1987, during the long duration expedition Mir EO-2, and acted as a lifeboat for the second segment ...

. His mission is sometimes called

Mir LII-1 The ''Buran'' program (russian: Буран, , "Snowstorm", "Blizzard"), also known as the "VKK Space Orbiter program" (russian: ВКК «Воздушно-Космический Корабль», lit=Air and Space Ship), was a Soviet Union, Sovi ...

, after the

Gromov Flight Research Institute The Gromov Flight Research Institute or GFRI for short (russian: link=no, Лётно-исследовательский институт имени М. М. Громова, russian: link=no, ЛИИ) is an important Russian State Researc ...

shorthand. In the year following his spaceflight, Anatoly Levchenko died of a

brain tumor A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and seconda ...

, in the

Nikolay Burdenko Nikolay Nilovich Burdenko (russian: Николай Нилович Бурденко; – 11 November 1946) was a Russian Empire and Soviet surgeon, the founder of Russian neurosurgery. He was Surgeon-General of the Red Army (1937–1946), a ...

Neurosurgical Institute in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. He was married with one child.

Awards

He was awarded the titles of

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

and

Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR The honorary title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR (russian: Летчик-космонавт СССР) was a state award of the Soviet Union presented to all cosmonauts who flew for the Soviet Space Agency. Usually accompanying the distinction w ...

and the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration b ...

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