Soyuz TMA-13

Soyuz TMA -13 is a mission name for the flight of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). As part of the ISS program, the flight is called ISS AF - 17S. It was the 17th visit of a Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS and the 123rd flight in Sojusprogramm.

Crew

Start crew

  • Yuri Valentinovich Lonchakov ( third space flight), Commander ( Roscosmos / Russia)
  • Michael Fincke ( second space flight), flight engineer (NASA / USA)
  • Richard Garriott ( first space flight ), Space Tourist ( USA / UK )

By the beginning of May 2008 Salis Chan Schakirowitsch Sharipov ( Roscosmos / Russia) was named as commander. Due to a disease he left and was replaced by Lonchakov.

Backup crew

  • Gennady Ivanovich Padalka ( third space flight ), Commander ( Roscosmos / Russia)
  • Michael Barratt ( first space flight), flight engineer (NASA / USA)
  • Nik Halik ( first space flight ), Space Tourist ( Australia)

By May 2008 was Yuri Valentinovich Lonchakov ( Roscosmos / Russia) reserve commander, by a disease of Sharipov Lonchakov slipped into the starting crew.

Return crew

  • Yuri Valentinovich Lonchakov ( third space flight), Commander ( Roscosmos / Russia)
  • Michael Fincke ( second space flight), flight engineer (NASA / USA)
  • Charles Simonyi ( second space flight ) Space Tourist ( Space Adventures / USA)

Mission overview

This mission brought two participants of the ISS Expedition 18 to the International Space Station, replacing the Soyuz TMA -12 as the rescue capsule. October 12, 2008 Soyuz TMA -13 launched on schedule from the spaceport in Baikonur to the ISS. Was on board the space tourist Richard Garriott. Garriott is the son of astronaut Owen Garriott, who belonged to the second crew of the U.S. space station Skylab in 1973. Two days later, the spacecraft automatically docked to the ISS. In addition to the astronauts were also some scientific samples for the ISS on board, among other things, 35 tadpoles. It was also the Immortality Drive transported to the ISS, a memory chip on which the DNA is stored by several people, including Garriott.

The spacecraft was 175 days long as a rescue ferry. The landing took place on 8 April 2009 in the spare land area 150 km northeast of Schesqasghan place because the subsoil of the originally intended area was 300 km to the northwest too moist. Also on board was the spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi, who started with Soyuz TMA -14 to the ISS.

The smooth landing of TMA -13 seems to confirm that the correct conclusions were drawn from the ballistic landings of TMA- 10 and TMA -11.

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