Soyuz 13

Soyuz 13
Mission type	Astronomy
Operator	Soviet space program
COSPAR ID	1973-103A
SATCAT no.	06982
Mission duration	7 days 20 hours 55 minutes 35 seconds
Orbits completed	127
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz 7K-T No.2
Spacecraft type	Soyuz 7K-T-AF
Manufacturer	Experimental Design Bureau (OKB-1)
Launch mass	6570 kg
Landing mass	1200 kg
Crew
Crew size	2
Members	Pyotr Klimuk; Valentin Lebedev
Callsign	Кавказ (Kavkaz - "Caucasus")
Start of mission
Launch date	18 December 1973,; 11:55:00 UTC
Rocket	Soyuz
Launch site	Baikonur, Site 1/5
End of mission
Landing date	26 December 1973,; 08:50:35 UTC
Landing site	200 km at the southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	225.0 km
Apogee altitude	272.0 km
Inclination	51.60°
Period	89.20 minutes
	; Vimpel Diamond for entrainment patch; ; a post stamp depicting the crew Soyuz programme ← Soyuz 12 Soyuz 14 →

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 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 and Valentin Lebedev, was the Soviet Union's first dedicated science mission,^[4] and was the first mission controlled by the new Kaliningrad Mission Control Center.^[5]

^ Cite error: The named reference Display was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ "Baikonur LC1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 15 April 2009. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
^ Cite error: The named reference Trajectory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Clark, Phillip (1988). The Soviet Manned Space Program. New York: Orion Books, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-517-56954-X.
^ Newkirk, Dennis (1990). Almanac of Soviet Manned Space Flight. Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87201-848-2.