MISSION NAME
Soyuz T-13 13
Status
Success
DATE
6 JUN 1985
LAUNCH PROVIDER
Soviet Space Program
Launch Pad
1/5
Description
Soyuz T-13 was the eighth mission to visit the Salyut 7 space station. The mission began on June 6, 1985, 06:39:52 UTC, launching Commander Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Flight Engineer Viktor Savinykh into orbit. Following a two day solo flight Soyuz T-13 docked with Salyut 7 on June 08. When arriving there, the station had been vacant since eight month and it had been crippled by a solar array problem. Soyuz T-13 was the first Soyuz to dock manually with an inert Salyut. During their stay on the station, crew had to perform numerous repairs to restore life support, power and other systems, and conducted two EVAs for the same reasons. Cosmonauts were visited by a Progress cargo spacecraft and a Soyuz T-14, who joined the work on the station. Vladimir Dzhanibekov returned to Earth with the Soyuz T-14 crew member, while Viktor Savinykh stayed to continue his work on the station. The mission concluded with a safe landing back on Earth on September 26, 1985, 09:51:58 UTC.
Soyuz-U2
Rocket Description
The Soyuz-U2 was a Soviet, later Russian, carrier rocket. It was derived from the Soyuz-U, and a member of the R-7 family of rockets. It featured increased performance compared with the baseline Soyuz-U, due to the use of syntin propellant, as opposed to RP-1 paraffin, used on the Soyuz-U.