Soyuz T-13

Soyuz T-13 was a Soyuz mission, a human spaceflight mission transporting personnel to the Russian space station Salyut 7. The eighth expedition to the orbital station, the mission launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, atop a Soyuz-U2 carrier rocket, at 06:39:52 UTC on 1985-06-06. It is of note because it marked the first time a spacecraft had docked with a 'dead' space station, and the first time such a station had been returned to operational status following repairs.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission highlights

Soyuz T-13 was the 8th expedition to Salyut 7.

Vladimir Dzhanibekov could have had no notion that he would so soon visit Salyut 7 after his Soyuz T-12 flight, and what more on the first Soyuz flight to dock manually with an inert space station, as Salyut 7 had been crippled by a solar array problem. For this purpose modifications were made to the Soyuz spacecraft to include control levers for proximity operations. Viktor Savinykh's and Vladimir Dzhanibekov's mission was successful and they were able to salvage the Salyut 7 station. Savinykh remained aloft for 169 days, returning to Earth in Soyuz T-14; Dzhanibekov returned to Earth in Soyuz T-13 with Grechko after spending 110 days on Salyut 7. Before deorbiting, Soyuz T-13 spent about 30 h conducting rendezvous and docking tests.^{[citation needed]}

Salvaging Salyut 7

The effort to salvage Salyut 7 was in the words of author David S. F. Portree "one of the most impressive feats of in-space repairs in history".^[2] As the crew approached the inert station, they saw that its solar arrays were pointing randomly as it rolled slowly about its long axis. They used a handheld laser rangefinder to judge their distance, and conducted a fly-around inspection to be certain the exterior was intact. Dzhanibekov noted that the thermal blankets on the transfer compartment had turned a dull gray from prolonged exposure to sunlight.

Dzhanibekov piloted his ship to intercept the forward port of Salyut 7, matched the station's rotation and achieved soft dock with the station. Upon achieving hard dock—the first time and as of 2012 the only time any spacecraft docked with an inert space station^[3]—the crew confirmed through the electrical connectors in the docking collars that the Salyut 7 electrical system was dead. They carefully sampled the air in the station before opening the hatch. The station air was very cold, but breathable. Frost covered the walls and apparatus. The cosmonauts wore winter garb, including fur-lined hats, as they entered the station.

The first order of business was to restore electric power. Two of the eight batteries were destroyed, the rest fully discharged. Dzhanibekov determined that a sensor in the solar array pointing system had failed, preventing the batteries from recharging. A telemetry radio problem prevented the TsUP from detecting the problem. Salyut 7 had quickly run down its batteries, shutting down all its systems and accounting for the break in radio contact.^{[citation needed]} The cosmonauts set about recharging the batteries and used Soyuz T-13 to turn the station in order to point its solar arrays to the sun.

On June 10 they turned on the air heaters. The cosmonauts relied on the Soyuz T-13 air regeneration system until they could get the Salyut 7 system back in order. On June 13 the attitude control system was successfully reactivated. This was cause for jubilation, as it meant a Progress supply spacecraft bearing replacement parts could dock with Salyut 7. The station’s water tanks thawed by the end of June – freezing had destroyed the water heater, so the cosmonauts used a powerful television light to heat fluids. Wall heaters were turned on only after all the frost had evaporated, in order to prevent water from entering equipment. Normal atmospheric humidity was achieved only at the end of July, nearly two months after docking.

See also

• Soyuz 10, the first mission to dock to a space station, which had to be aborted as hard-dock with Salyut 1 was not achievable.
• Soyuz T-15, a mission to ferry equipment from Salyut 7 to Mir, which had to manually maneuver and dock to Mir.
• For an image of the crew, see: Spacefacts.de – Crew Photo: Soyuz T-13

Further reading

• Vladimir Dzhanibekov, "Soviets In Space - Are They Ahead?", National Geographic, pp. 430–433, 1986 October.

References

v t e Soyuz programme Main topics Soyuz (rocket family) Soyuz (spacecraft) List of Soviet manned space missions List of Russian manned space missions Unmanned missions Kosmos 133 Kosmos 140 Kosmos 186 Kosmos 188 Kosmos 212 Kosmos 213 Kosmos 238 Soyuz 2 Kosmos 379 Kosmos 396 Kosmos 434 Kosmos 496 Kosmos 573 Kosmos 613 Kosmos 638 Kosmos 656 Kosmos 670 Kosmos 672 Kosmos 772 Soyuz 20 Kosmos 869 Kosmos 1001 Soyuz 32 (at landing) Kosmos 1074 Soyuz 34 (at start) Soyuz T-1 Soyuz TM-1 Manned missions Past Soyuz 7K-OK (1967–1970) 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Soyuz 7K-OKS (1971) 10 11 Soyuz 7K-T (1973–1981) 12 13 14 15 17 18a 18 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 (at start) 33 34 (at landing) 35 36 37 38 39 40 Soyuz 7K-TM (1974–1976) 16 19 22 Soyuz-T (1976–1986) T-2 T-3 T-4 T-5 T-6 T-7 T-8 T-9 T-10-1 T-10 T-11 T-12 T-13 T-14 T-15 Soyuz-TM (1986–2003) TM-2 TM-3 TM-4 TM-5 TM-6 TM-7 TM-8 TM-9 TM-10 TM-11 TM-12 TM-13 TM-14 TM-15 TM-16 TM-17 TM-18 TM-19 TM-20 TM-21 TM-22 TM-23 TM-24 TM-25 TM-26 TM-27 TM-28 TM-29 TM-30 TM-31 TM-32 TM-33 TM-34 Soyuz-TMA (2003–2012) TMA-1 TMA-2 TMA-3 TMA-4 TMA-5 TMA-6 TMA-7 TMA-8 TMA-9 TMA-10 TMA-11 TMA-12 TMA-13 TMA-14 TMA-15 TMA-16 TMA-17 TMA-18 TMA-19 TMA-20 TMA-21 TMA-22 Soyuz-TMA-M (2010–2013) TMA-01M TMA-02M TMA-03M TMA-04M TMA-05M TMA-06M TMA-07M TMA-08M TMA-09M Current Soyuz-TMA-M (2013–2014) TMA-10M TMA-11M Planned Soyuz-TMA-M (2014–2015) TMA-12M TMA-13M TMA-14M TMA-15M TMA-16M TMA-17M TMA-18M TMA-19M Launch sites Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5 Site 31/6