Austromir

Mission name: Soyuz TM-13
Call sign: Donbass
Number of crew members: 3

Launch:
2 October 1991, 05:59:38 UTC, Baikonur LC1

Landing:
25 March 1992, 08:51:22 UTC, near Dzhezkazgan

Duration: 175 days, 2 hours, 51 minutes, 44 seconds
Number of orbits: ~2 730

CREW

Launched:

• Alexander Volkov (3)
• Toktar Aubakirov (1) - Kazakhstan
• Franz Viehböck (1) - Austria

Landed:

• Alexander Volkov (3)
• Sergei Krikalev (2)
• Klaus-Dietrich Flade (1) - Germany

(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission

MISSION HIGHLIGHTS

The 13th expedition to Mir. Included astronaut from Austria and cosmonaut from soon to be independent Kazakhstan.

Soyuz-TM 13 carried Austrian cosmonaut-researcher Franz Viehböck and still 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 Franz Viehböck to Mir, and the Kazakh cosmonaut flew partly in an effort to encourage newly independent Kazakhstan 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. Anatoly Artsebarsky traded places with Alexander Volkov and returned to Earth in Soyuz TM-12.

Spent 175 days docked to Mir. Sergei Krikalev launched from the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR, and landed in independent Kazakhstan.