Page "Boris Volynov" Paragraph 10

On 6 July 1976 Volynov and Flight Engineer Vitaliy Zholobov were launched on board Soyuz 21 to spend 18 days aboard the space station Salyut 5.

Following a deterioration in the health of Zholobov, who was making his first spaceflight, the decision was made to return the crew at the earliest available opportunity and they boarded their Soyuz on 24 August.

However, as Volynov tried to undock from Salyut, the latch failed to release properly.

As he fired the jets to move the spacecraft away, the docking mechanism jammed, resulting in the Soyuz being undocked but still linked to Salyut.

As the two spacecraft moved out of range of ground communications, only the first set of emergency procedures was received.

Volynov tried a second time to undock but managed only to slightly loosen the latches.

This situation persisted for an entire orbit ( 90 minutes ), then the final set of emergency procedures were received and the latches finally disengaged.