Manned two crew. Docked with Salyut 5. Conduct of joint experiments with the Salyut-5 orbital research station. Mission was to last for two months; cut short by a gradually worstening illness of Zholobov. Landed 200 km SW Kokchetav. Recovered August 25, 1976 18:33 GMT.

Soyuz 23 was to have docked with the Salyut 5 space station but its long-distance rendezvous system failed. It landed at night (October 16, 1976 17:46 GMT), in a snowstorm, in -20 deg C weather, on the surface of Lake Tengiz. The recovery crews did not find the capsule until the next morning, and were surprised to find the crew alive.

Docked with Salyut 5. A busy, successful mission, accomplishing nearly as much as the earlier Soyuz 21's 50 day mission. Recovered February 25, 1977 9:38 GMT. Landed 37 km NE Arkalyk.

Planned first test manned flight of the TKS large ferry craft. Would have docked with the Almaz OPS 4 military space station. Flight cancelled with the rest of the Almaz program in 1981. The spacecraft was instead flown unmanned to Salyut 6 as Cosmos 1267.