Portal:Space exploration/Biography/Week 26 2007

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Rimantas Antanas Stankevicius (No image available) (July 26, 1944 – September 9, 1990) was a Lithuanian astronaut who test flew Soviet space shuttle Buran and its test vehicles. He was born in Kapsukas (now Marijampolė), Lithuania, and died in Salgareda, a small village near Treviso, Italy, airshow after a crash of his Su-27 fighter plane.

Stankevičius accomplished 14 test-flights with Buran's counterpart BTS-02 aircraft and 6 taxi tests with Buran. He was both the pilot and the commander of the space shuttle.