Soyuz T-13 - Mission Highlights

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.