Expedition 13 was the 13th expedition to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS), and launched at 02:30

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

on 30 March 2006. The expedition used the

Soyuz TMA-8 Soyuz TMA-8 was a Soyuz spacecraft, Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle. Crew Soyuz TMA-8 was a transport mission for portions of the International Space Station (ISS) ''Expedition 13'' c ...

spacecraft, which stayed at the station for the duration of the expedition for emergency evacuation. Astronaut

Marcos Pontes Marcos Cesar Pontes (born 11 March 1963) is a Brazilian Air Force pilot, engineer, Agência Espacial Brasileira, AEB astronaut, politician and author. He became the first South American and the first Lusophone to go into space when he docked ont ...

launched with Expedition 13 on the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft and became the first Brazilian in space. He returned with Expedition 12 on Soyuz TMA-7 after a nine-day mission. Thomas Reiter, from the

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

, became part of the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006. Reiter was launched with the second "Return to Flight" mission on ''

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

'' (

STS-121 STS-121 was a 2006 Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by on its 32nd flight. The main purposes of the mission were to test new safety and repair techniques introduced following the Space Shuttle Columbia disas ...

) on 4 July 2006. Reiter became the first European long-duration crew member on the International Space Station when he officially joined the crew of the ISS at 19:13 UTC on 6 July 2006 upon the complete installation of his

Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...

seat liner, allowing him to return to Earth aboard the docked Soyuz craft. Reiter's arrival restored the station crew to three members for the first time since May 2003. The station's crew size had been reduced to two when shuttle flights were put on hold after the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' accident on 1 February 2003.

Crew

Cosmonaut

Dmitri Kondratyev Dmitri Yuryevich Kondratyev (, born on 25 May 1969 in Irkutsk, Russia) is a retired Russian cosmonaut. He served as a crew member on the International Space Station long duration mission Expedition 27 as Commander, having also served as a Flight E ...

was originally assigned to the flight but he was replaced by Reiter several months before launch.NASA.gov
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Back-up crew

Fyodor Yurchikhin Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin () is a Russian cosmonaut of Pontic Greeks, Pontic Greek descent, engineer and Energia (corporation), RSC Energia test-pilot who has flown on five spaceflights. His first spaceflight was a 10-day Space Shuttle mi ...

Commander and Soyuz Commander – RSA *

Michael Fincke Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke (born March 14, 1967) is an American astronaut and retired United States Air Force colonel. He formerly held the American record for the most time in space (382 days) until it was broken by Scott Kelly on October 16 ...

Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer – NASA *

Léopold Eyharts Léopold "Leo" Eyharts (born 28 April 1957) is a French Brigadier General in the French Air Force, an engineer and ESA astronaut. He has flown to space two times as part of a Mir expedition and an International Space Station expedition. Eyh ...

Flight Engineer – ESA (France)

Spacewalks

EVA 1

The first spacewalk for Expedition 13, performed by

Pavel Vinogradov Pavel Vladimirovich Vinogradov (; born 31 August 1953 in Magadan, USSR) is a former cosmonaut and commander of the International Space Station. He has flown into space three times, aboard Mir and the International Space Station, and was one of t ...

and Jeffrey Williams, began on 1 June, and ended on 2 June 2006. It was originally scheduled to include a golf shot off the space station but the event was postponed to Expedition 14, as NASA was still evaluating the risks. The spacewalk ran behind schedule, requiring an extra 50 minutes to be added to the length in order to complete the camera replacement. The EVA began 1 June, at 23:48 UTC and ended 2 June at 06:19 UTC, lasting 6 hours and 31 minutes. Other tasks during the walk included repair of a vent for the station's oxygen-producing Elektron unit, and retrieval of experiment packages.

EVA 2

The second spacewalk for Expedition 13 occurred on 3 August 2006. The spacewalk was performed by Jeffrey Williams and Thomas Reiter, it began at 14:04 UTC and ended at 19:58 UTC, for a duration of 5 hours and 54 minutes. During the spacewalk the astronauts installed the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU), installed two Materials on

Materials International Space Station Experiment The Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) is a series of experiments mounted externally on the International Space Station (ISS) that investigates the effects of long-term exposure of materials to the harsh space environment. T ...

(MISSE) containers, installed a controller for a thermal radiator rotary joint, replaced a computer and installed a starboard jumper and spool positioning device (SPD), inspected a radiator beam valve module and installed another, installed a port jumper and SPD, tested an infrared camera, installed a light on the truss railway handcart, replaced a malfunctioning

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

antenna, installed a vacuum system valve, moved two articulated portable foot restraints, photographed a scratch on the airlock hatch, and retrieved a ball stack for inspection from PMA-1.

References

External links

ESA.int: Video from the ISS Expedition 13, taken by Thomas Reiter

{{Use British English, date=August 2010 Expedition 13 2006 in spaceflight