Soyuz 13 (, ''Union 13'') was a December, 1973, Soviet crewed space flight, the second test flight of the redesigned

Soyuz 7K-T The second generation of the Soyuz spacecraft, the ''Soyuz 7K-T'', comprised Soyuz 12 through Soyuz 40 (1973–1981). In the wake of the Soyuz 11 tragedy, the spacecraft was redesigned to accommodate two cosmonauts who would wear pressure ...

spacecraft that first flew as Soyuz 12. The spacecraft was specially modified to carry the Orion 2 Space Observatory. The flight, crewed by

Pyotr Klimuk Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk (; ; born 10 July 1942) is a former Soviet Union, Soviet astronaut, cosmonaut and the first Belarusians, Belarusian to perform space travel. Klimuk made three crewed space mission, flights into space. From 1991 to 2003, he he ...

and

Valentin Lebedev Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev (; born April 14, 1942, in Moscow) is a former Soviet cosmonaut who made two flights into space. His stay aboard the Space Station Salyut 7 with Anatoly Berezovoy in 1982, which lasted 211 days, was recorded in t ...

, was the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's first dedicated science mission, and was the first mission controlled by the new

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad,. known as Königsberg; ; . until 1946, is the largest city and administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an Enclave and exclave, exclave of Russia between Lithuania and Poland ( west of the bulk of Russia), located on the Prego ...

Mission Control Center A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages spaceflight, space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the gr ...

Crew

Backup crew

Reserve crew

Mission parameters

*Mass: *Perigee: *Apogee: *Inclination: 51.60° *Period: 89.20 minutes

Mission highlights

Launched 18 December 1973, the Soyuz 13 crew of Klimuk and Lebedev performed some of the experiments intended for the failed

Salyut The ''Salyut'' programme (, , meaning "salute" or "fireworks") was the first space station programme, undertaken by the Soviet Union. It involved a series of four crewed scientific research space stations and two crewed military reconnaissa ...

space stations from the previous year. Unlike Soyuz 12, the craft was equipped with solar panels to allow for an extended mission. Additionally, an orbital module was attached replacing unneeded docking equipment. This module included the Orion 2 Space Observatory (see below). The crew used a multispectral camera to measure the atmosphere and pollution. They also tested the Oasis 2 closed

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

system, and harvested

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

, yielding 30 times the original

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

Medical Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

tests were also carried out, including experiments to measure

blood flow Hemodynamics American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, or haemodynamics are the Fluid dynamics, dynamics of blood flow. The circulatory system is controlled by homeostasis, homeostatic mechanisms of autoregulation, just as hydrau ...

to the

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

. The crew landed in a heavy snowstorm on 26 December 1973, but were recovered a few minutes later, some 200 km at southwest of

Karaganda Karaganda (, ; ), also known as Karagandy (, ; ; ) (also sometimes romanized as Qaraghandy), is a major city in central Kazakhstan and the capital of the Karaganda Region. It is the fifth most populous city in the country, with a population o ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. During its 8-day mission, Soyuz 13 was in orbit around the Earth at the same time as the U.S.

Skylab 4 Skylab 4 (also SL-4 and SLM-3) was the third crewed Skylab mission and placed the third and final human spaceflight, crew aboard the first American space station. The mission began on November 16, 1973, with the launch of Gerald P. Carr, Edwar ...

mission, which had been launched on 16 November, and which would remain in orbit until 8 February, marking the first time that both the United States and the Soviet Union had crewed missions operating simultaneously. "Skylab 3 Astronauts Wish Russians Luck", ''Los Angeles Times'', 19 December 1973, p. 22 ("The launch marked the first time that Russian and American astronauts were aloft simultaneously." )

Orion 2 Space Observatory

The Orion 2 Space Observatory, designed by Grigor Gurzadyan, was operated by crew member Lebedev. Ultraviolet spectrograms of thousands of stars to as faint as 13th

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

were obtained by a wide-angle meniscus telescope of the Cassegrain system, with an aperture diameter of 240 mm, an equivalent focal length of 1000 mm, and a 4-grade quartz prism objective. The dispersion of the spectrograph was 17, 28 and 55 nm/mm, at wavelengths of 200, 250 and 300 nm respectively. The first satellite Ultraviolet spectrogram of a

planetary nebula A planetary nebula is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to planets. The ...

( IC 2149 in Auriga) was obtained, revealing lines of

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

and

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

- elements not previously observed in objects of that type. Two-photon emission in that planetary nebula and a remarkable

star cluster A star cluster is a group of stars held together by self-gravitation. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters, tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound; and open cluster ...

in Auriga were also discovered. Additionally, comet Kohoutek was observed.

References

External links

* G. A. Gurzadyan, Ultraviolet spectra of Capella, ''Nature'', vol. 250, p. 204, 197

* G. A. Gurzadyan, S. S. Rustambekova, Silicon-rich stellar envelope? ''Nature'', vol. 254, p. 311, 197

* G. A. Gurzadyan, A. L. Jarakyan, M. N. Krmoyan, A. L. Kashin, G. M. Loretsyan, J. B. Ohanesyan, Space astrophysical observatory Orion-2, ''Astrophysics and Space Science'', vol.40, p. 393, 197

* G. A. Gurzadyan, Two-photon emission in planetary nebula IC 2149, ''Astronomical Society of the Pacific Publications'', vol.88, p. 891, 197

* H. A. Abt, Spectral types in Gurzadyan's clustering in Auriga, ''Astronomical Society of the Pacific Publications'', vol.90, p. 555, 197

{{Orbital launches in 1973 Crewed Soyuz missions 1973 in spaceflight 1973 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft launched in 1973