Soyuz 13

Infobox Space mission
mission_name = Soyuz 13
sign = Кавказ (Kavkaz - "Caucasus")
crew_members = 2
launch = December 18, 1973 11:55:00 UTC Gagarin's Start
landing = December 26, 1973 08:50:35 UTC 200 km SW of Karaganda
duration = 7d/20:55:35
orbits = 127
next = Soyuz 14
previous = Soyuz 12 |

Soyuz 13 was a second test flight of the redesigned Soyuz capsule that first flew as
Soyuz 12. This particular spacecraft was further specially modified to carry a Orion 2 Space Observatory (see Orion 1 and Orion 2 Space Observatories); Orion 1 Space Observatory was installed onboard space station Salyut 1.

Crew

Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.
*Pyotr Klimuk (1) - Commander
*Valentin Lebedev (1) - Flight Engineer

Backup crew

*Lev Vorobiyov - Commander
*Valeri Yazdovsky - Flight Engineer

Reserve crew

*Vladimir Kovalyonok - Commander
*Yuri Ponomaryov - Flight Engineer

Mission parameters

*Mass: 6560 kg
*Perigee: 188 km
*Apogee: 247 km
*Inclination: 51.6°
*Period: 88.8 min

Orion 2 Space Observatory

The Orion 2 Space Observatory also designed by Grigor Gurzadyan was operated by crew member Valentin Lebedev. Ultraviolet spectrograms of thousands of stars to as faint as 13th magnitude were obtained by a wide-angle meniscus telescope of the Cassegrain system, with an aperture diameter of 240 mm, an equivalent focal length of 1,000 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 UV spectrogram of a planetary nebula (IC 2149 in Auriga) was obtained, revealing lines of aluminium and titanium - elements not previously observed in objects of that type. Two-photon emission in that planetary nebula and a remarkable star cluster in Auriga were also discovered.

Once again, the new Soyuz variant performed extremely well when on-board systems were tested.

The landing was in a snow storm.

References

*G.A.Gurzadyan, Ultraviolet spectra of Capella, "Nature," vol. 250, p.204, 1974 [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v250/n5463/abs/250204a0.html]
*G.A.Gurzadyan, S.S.Rustambekova, Silicon-rich stellar envelope? "Nature", vol. 254, p.311, 1975 [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v254/n5498/abs/254311a0.html]
*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, 1976 [http://www.springerlink.com/content/x82010pw36427248/]
*G.A.Gurzadyan, Two-photon emission in planetary nebula IC 2149, "Astronomical Society of the Pacific Publications", vol.88, p.891, 1976 [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1976PASP...88..891G]
*H.A.Abt, Spectral types in Gurzadyan's clustering in Auriga, "Astronomical Society of the Pacific Publications", vol.90, p.555, 1978 [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1978PASP...90..555A]