Soyuz 13 (russian: Союз 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 suit ...

spacecraft that first flew as

Soyuz 12 Soyuz 12 (russian: Союз 12, ''Union 12'') was a September, 1973, crewed test flight by the Soviet Union of the newly redesigned Soyuz 7K-T spacecraft that was intended to provide greater crew safety in the wake of the Soyuz 11 tragedy. Th ...

. The spacecraft was specially modified to carry the Orion 2 Space Observatory. The flight, crewed by

Pyotr Klimuk Pyotr Ilyich Klimuk ( be, Пётр Ільіч Кліму́к; russian: Пётр Ильич Климу́к; born 10 July 1942) is a former Soviet cosmonaut and the first Belarusian to perform space travel. Klimuk made three flights into space. ...

and

Valentin Lebedev Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev (russian: Валентин Витальевич Лебедев; born April 14, 1942 in Moscow) is a Soviet cosmonaut who made two flights into space. His stay aboard the Space Station Salyut 7 with Anatoly Berezo ...

, was the

Soviet Union 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 national ...

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

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Mission Control Center.

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 (russian: Салют, , 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 ...

space stations from the previous year. Unlike

, 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 mulispectral camera to measure the atmosphere and pollution. They also tested the Oasis 2 closed

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

system, and harvested

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

, yielding 30 times the original

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...

Medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...

tests were also carried out, including experiments to measure

blood flow Hemodynamics or haemodynamics are the dynamics of blood flow. The circulatory system is controlled by homeostatic mechanisms of autoregulation, just as hydraulic circuits are controlled by control systems. The hemodynamic response continuously m ...

to the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

. 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 or Qaraghandy ( kk, Қарағанды/Qarağandy, ; russian: Караганда, ) is the capital of Karaganda Region in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, fourth most populous city in Kaza ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Orion 2 Space Observatory

The Orion 2 Space Observatory, designed by

Grigor Gurzadyan Grigor Gurzadyan ( hy, Գրիգոր Գուրզադյան) (15 October 1922 – 22 February 2014) was an Armenian astronomer, and pioneer of space astronomy. Life Gurzadyan was born in 1922 in Baghdad, to parents that survived the Armenian gen ...

, 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 Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

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 (PN, plural PNe) 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 ...

(

IC 2149 IC 2149 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Auriga. It is a small, bright planetary nebula with something to offer in telescopes of most sizes.http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/jan/IC_2149.html Skyhound Characteristics Visually i ...

Auriga AURIGA (''Antenna Ultracriogenica Risonante per l'Indagine Gravitazionale Astronomica'') is an ultracryogenic resonant bar gravitational wave detector in Italy. It is at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nuclea ...

) was obtained, revealing lines of

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

and

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the 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 Star clusters are large groups of stars. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters are more loosely clust ...

in Auriga were also discovered. Additionally,

comet Kohoutek Comet Kohoutek ( formally designated C/1973 E1 and formerly as 1973 XII and 1973f) is a comet that passed close to the Sun towards the end of 1973. Early predictions of the comet's peak brightness suggested that it had the potential to become o ...

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