Expedition 13 was the 13th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), and launched at 02:30 UTC on 30 March 2006. The expedition used the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft, which stayed at the station for the duration of the expedition for emergency evacuation.
Astronaut Marcos Pontes launched with Expedition 13 on the Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft and became the first Brazilian in space. He returned with Expedition 12 on Soyuz TMA-7 after a nine-day mission.
Thomas Reiter, from the European Space Agency, became part of the Expedition 13 crew in July 2006. Reiter was launched with the second "Return to Flight" mission on Discovery (STS-121) on 4 July 2006. Reiter became the first European long-duration crew member on the International Space Station when he officially joined the crew of the ISS at 19:13 UTC on 6 July 2006 upon the complete installation of his Soyuz spacecraft seat liner, allowing him to return to Earth aboard the docked Soyuz craft.
Reiter's arrival restored the station crew to three members for the first time since May 2003. The station's crew size was reduced to two when shuttle flights were put on hold after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident on 1 February 2003.
Alex Panchenko produced a number of patches for the Expedition 13 crew. Alex's patches use gold thread for the lettering. This version features a red border for Pavel Vinogradov. It has three names. It is executed on blue twill.
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