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Soyuz | Soyuz 13

Status: Success  |  Launched: Dec 18, 1973 11:55 UTC

Launch Provider & Rocket

Mission

Soyuz 13 launched on 18 December 1973, 11:55:00 UTC. It carried commander Pyotr Klimuk and flight engineer Valentin Lebedev into orbit. This mission was the second test flight of the modified Soyuz spacecraft. Crew spent 7 deays in orbit and carried out various astrophysical studies. They also obtained ultraviolet spectrograms of stars with the help of an Orion 2 Space Observatory onboard the spacecraft. Crew returned to Earth, landing on 26 December 1973, 08:50:35 UTC.

  • Type: Human Exploration
  • Orbit: Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Launch Site

  • Pad: 1/5
  • Location: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
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Program

  • Soyuz — The Soyuz programme is a human spaceflight programme initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s. The Soyuz spacecraft was originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It was the third Soviet human spaceflight programme after the Vostok and Voskhod programmes. (Wikipedia)

Launch data sourced automatically from the Launch Library 2 API. Last refreshed: 2026-10-07T01:00:56.820087+00:00.