The cosmonauts Gorbatko and Glazkov were the back-up crew for
Soyuz 23, which failed to dock with
Salyut 5 several months earlier. Soyuz 24 was launched 7 February 1977, and successfully docked with the orbiting space station the next day. However, the crew did not immediately enter the station, atypically having a sleep period first and delaying their entry by some 11 hours. Observers speculate that the flight had a specific objective and was not meant to be a long-duration mission. In any case, fuel for the station to maneuver was too depleted to attempt a long mission. The crew continued the research started by the Soyuz 21 crew, performed Earth resources work, biological and materials experiments. But, being a part of the
Almaz military Salyut program, other unrevealed projects were likely carried out. The flight would prove to be not only the final flight to a military Salyut station, but also the final all-military crew to be launched by the Soviets. On 21 February 1977, the crew performed an air-changing experiment, shown on TV, slowly venting air from one end of the station to the other while releasing 100 kg of air from tanks in the docked Soyuz orbital module. This was a test of the future air replenishment techniques to be carried out with
Progress transports in subsequent space stations. They began to activate the Soyuz 24 on 23 February 1977, then deactivate the space station, and undocked and landed near
Arkalyk on 25 February 1977. The Soyuz landed in a blowing snowstorm and recovery crews could not locate the space capsule. As it turned out, the
search and rescue beacon was unable to deploy due to being jammed shut from snow, so Gorbatko had to free it by hand. On 26 February 1977, Salyut 5 ejected a research module. The research module, which was recovered on Soviet territory, containing exposed film and experiments carried out by the two crews who crewed the space station. The
Salyut 5 space station was deorbited on 8 August 1977. == Mission parameters ==