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Soyuz TM-13
COSPAR ID	1991-069A
SATCAT no.	21735
Mission duration	175 days, 2 hours, 51 minutes, 44 seconds
Orbits completed	~2,730
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz 7K-STM No. 63
Spacecraft type	Soyuz-TM
Manufacturer	NPO Energia
Launch mass	7,150 kilograms (15,760 lb)
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Alexander Volkov
Launching	Toktar Aubakirov; Franz Viehböck
Landing	Sergei Krikalev; Klaus-Dietrich Flade
Callsign	Донба́сс (Donbass)
Start of mission
Launch date	2 October 1991, 05:59:38 UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-U2
Launch site	Baikonur Cosmodrome
End of mission
Landing date	25 March 1992, 08:51:22 UTC
Landing site	near Dzhezkazgan
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Perigee altitude	195 kilometres (121 mi)
Apogee altitude	232 kilometres (144 mi)
Inclination	51.7 degrees
Period	92.4 minutes
Docking with Mir
Docking date	4 October 1991, 07:38:42 UTC
Undocking date	25 March 1992, 05:29:03 UTC
	Soyuz programme; (Crewed missions) ← Soyuz TM-12 Soyuz TM-14 →

Soyuz TM-13 was the 13th expedition to the Mir space station.^[1] Launched from the Soviet Union in October 1991 and lasting until March 1992, the mission included cosmonauts from Austria and the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (Kazakh SSR), the latter of which became an independent state during the mission due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The launch ceremony at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakh SSR was attended by the Soviet Premier Ivan Silaev, the President of the Kazakh SSR Nursultan Nazarbayev, and the Chancellor of Austria Franz Vranitzky. Before the launch, for the first time, President Nazarbayev received the launch report from cosmonaut Tokhtar Aubakirov in the Kazakh language.^[2]

Crew


Position	Launching crew	Landing crew
Commander	/ Alexander Volkov Third and last spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut/Flight Engineer	/ Toktar Aubakirov Only spaceflight	/ Sergei Krikalev Second spaceflight
Research Cosmonaut	Franz Viehböck Only spaceflight	Klaus-Dietrich Flade Only spaceflight

Mission highlights

Soyuz-TM 13 carried commander Alexander Volkov along with Austrian cosmonaut-researcher Franz Viehböck and Soviet-Kazakh cosmonaut-researcher Toktar Aubakirov. The flight was unusual for carrying no flight engineer. Veteran Russian cosmonaut Alexandr Volkov commanded. The Austrians paid $7 million to fly Viehböck to Mir, and the Kazakh cosmonaut flew partly in an effort to encourage the then-Kazakh SSR to continue to permit launchings from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The cosmonaut-researchers photographed their respective countries from orbit and conducted the usual range of materials processing and medical experiments. Artsebarsky and Viehböck returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-12, with Volkov remaining on board Mir for an extended mission.

The Soyuz spent a total of 175 days docked to the Mir space station.

The Soyuz returned from Mir with German Klaus-Dietrich Flade and Krikalev and Volkov, dubbed by some as "the last citizens of the USSR" because they had launched from the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR, and landed in what had since become the independent Republic of Kazakhstan.